By Lisa Wang / Staff Reporter
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) yesterday said the high-speed broadband satellite services from Amazon Leo might become available in Taiwan as soon as next year, as the company works to clear all major regulatory hurdles.The company still has to overcome six to seven regulatory hurdles, as the telecom industry is heavily regulated in Taiwan, Far EasTone president Ching Chee (井琪) said. It might take at least nine to 12 months to navigate the required review and authorization workflow, she said.
Far EastTone Telecommunications Co president Ching Chee speaks at a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
“If you are talking about next year, we believe there is a chance to see it happen in that timeframe based on our estimate for the whole procedure to go through,” Ching said.In addition to seeking the Ministry of Digital Affairs’ approval to assign its radio frequency for the low Earth orbit satellite operations, Far EasTone is required to obtain approvals from the National Communications Commission and the Criminal Investigation Bureau to debut the satellite services, she said.
On Tuesday, Far EasTone signed a distribution agreement with Amazon Leo to become an authorized agent of its services in Taiwan. That is part of the company’s efforts to enhance the resilience of its network connectivity. Low Earth orbit satellites are designed to support wide coverage, low latency and connectivity in areas where terrain or extreme weather events can limit traditional network performance. The new services are targeted for special industry needs, such as maritime, agriculture and mining, Far EasTone said.Far EasTone said it holds an advantageous position over local peers in securing the deal as it owns 28-gigahertz (GHz) radio frequency, matching the 27.5 GHz to 30 GHz frequency band Amazon Leo operates.The company did not disclose if it has secured an exclusive distribution agreement with Amazon Leo in Taiwan. Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s biggest telecom operator, has shown strong interest in sharing the distributorship, although it has already obtained the distribution rights to offer low Earth orbit satellite services from OneWeb and medium Earth orbit services from SES in Taiwan.Chunghwa Telecom in a statement yesterday said it has an open attitude to Amazon Leo’s collaboration with other companies and would not rule out the possibility of forming a similar partnership with the service. The company’s goal is to build comprehensive satellite services to provide seamless Internet connection from low, medium to high Earth orbit services. Chunghwa Telecom has received more than NT$1 billion (US$31.6 million) orders to supply its satellite services as of present, it said.
