Taiwan plans to issue five 3G telecom licences

Taiwan's transportation and communications ministry said on Friday it will submit a plan to auction five third-generation (3G) wireless telecommunications licences for cabinet approval.

"The ministry plans to issue five 3G licences, but the number of licences needs further approval by the cabinet," Teng Tien-lai, head of the posts and telecommunications department of the Ministry of Transportation and Communication, told the press.

He said the ministry would propose the plan to the cabinet as soon as possible but declined to give a timetable or disclose the type of auction that would be used to sell the licences. Officials have said they plan to hold the auction in October.

Teng said the five licences include four new ones and a licence for the now-outdated advanced mobile phone system, which would be withdrawn from state-controlled Chunghwa Telecom and re-auctioned as a 3G licence.

Third-generation mobile technology is expected to transmit high-speed Internet access, video and CD-quality music over mobile telephone airwaves.

Operators known to be interested in a Taiwan 3G licence include Chunghwa Telecom and Taiwan Cellular, Taiwan's biggest wireless service firm, as well as firms run by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing.

Other contenders are Far EasTone, a unit of Far Eastern Textile, the Lin Yuan Group, parent of Cathay Life Insurance, and KG Telecom, the mobile phone service arm of the Koo's Group conglomerate.