Taiwan's big brother Taiwan Mobile and Taiwan Star Telecom agreed to merge operations, which will create Taiwan's largest telecom operator with 9.8 million subscribers and 100MHz of 3.5GHz spectrum.
In a statement, Taiwan's Big Brother, which has 7.3 million users by the end of 2021, noted that it plans to issue 282 million new shares for the swap merger. Its board of directors approved the deal on Dec. 30.
According to the GSMA think tank, Taiwan Star had 2.5 million users at the end of December. The current market leader, Chunghwa Telecom, had 9.7 million subscribers at the end of last year, while Far EasTone, another major local operator, had about 7 million subscribers.
Daniel Tsai, chairman of Taiwan's big brother, explained that the partnership aims to integrate the 5G spectrum held by the two operators, making mobile infrastructure deployment more efficient and moving towards a low-carbon, sustainable future.
He added that the merger will bring a "1+1 greater than 2" effect, which is also good for consumers.
The combined company will have 11,000 5G base stations, covering 90 percent of Taiwan's population. Taiwan Star has spectrum in the 900MHz (40MHz), 2.6GHz and 3.5GHz bands, while Big Brother Taiwan has spectrum in the 700MHz, 1.8GHz, 2.1GHz, 3.5GHz and 28GHz bands.
Once the transaction is completed, the 3G network and thousands of redundant 4G base stations will be shut down, plus Taiwan's big brother's energy-saving system, which is said to save 40 million kWh of electricity consumption per year. After the shutdown of Taiwan Star's 5G network, the annual power savings will reach 100 million to 200 million kWh.
Mergers require regulatory approval. (C114 Jiang Junmu)
![Returning to the three-legged pattern: Taiwan's big brother acquired Taiwan Star for 6.5 billion yuan[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)