Taiwan’s Executive Yuan recently announced that it plans to allocate NT$17.53 billion (US$632.9 million; US$1 = NT$27.7) to kick off an “speed up” plan in next two years, with an aim to facilitate local telecom operators to accelerate 5G network construction, the Commercial Times reported on December 24. Pursuant to the Mobile Broadband Business Plan, Taiwan’s five major telecom operators should separately build 3,000 large-scale base stations within five years. This “speed up” plan will set to build over 9,000 5G base stations within three and a half years to cover 85% of population in Taiwan. The plan has been sent to the Legislative Yuan for review. Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile, and Far EasTone have separately completed a total of 3,000 5G base stations and have planned to exceed 4,000 by year-end 2020.To be aligned with the “speed-up” plan, five major telecom operators in Taiwan should invest an additional NT$50 billion (US$1.8 billion)-NT$60 billion (US$2.2 billion) into 5G base stations.
Shipment value of Taiwan's 5G CPE is estimated at US$215 million in 2020 and grow to US$546 million in 2021, according to MIC (Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute), a major government think tank in Taiwan and leading IT research institute in Asia. In the first half of 2020, COVID-19 outbreak affected 5G commercial network construction, leading to the slowdown in shipments. However, Taiwan’s CPE shipment volume reached 244,000 units in the third quarter of 2020 alone, up 41% sequentially and 458% year-on-year. Shipment volume of the industry in the first half of 2021 is expected to reach 800,000 units, up 315% year-on-year and better than the first half. The growth will be bolstered mainly by the strong demand of the 5G FWA (Fixed Wireless Access) market in the United States.