Fitel to initially purchase 88 WiMAX base stations from Motorola

Kaddy Chung, Taipei; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES [Friday 18 January 2008]

First International Telecom (Fitel), a WiMAX licensee for the northern region of Taiwan, has decided to initially purchase 88 WiMAX base stations from Motorola for the establishment of its WiMAX infrastructure, according to market sources.

The deal will amount to NT$220 million (US$6.8 million) or NT$2.5 million per WiMAX base station, the sources noted.

Fitel plans to purchase an additional 200 WiMAX base stations in March-April 2008, and increase the number of its WiMAX base stations to 500 before the end of this year, the sources indicated.

Fitel plans to start launching its WiMAX services covering the northern part of Taiwan in the first quarter of 2009, during which the company is expected to purchase another 500 WiMAX base stations, said the sources.