Far EasTone Telecommunications (FET) is a Taiwan-based telecommunications company, established in October 1996. The company was founded by the Far Eastern Group in collaboration with AT&T. FET was granted two wireless service licenses (GSM 900 and GSM 1800) in January 1997 and initiated its service the following year, introducing a fully integrated dual-band system. The company was listed on the Taiwan OTC Stock Exchange in December 2001 under the ticker code 4904 and was officially listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in the electronic sector in August 2005. In September 2006, FET began providing 3G WCDMA services and later acquired WiMAX licenses in December 2009, commencing WiMAX transmission services shortly after. The company successfully bid for LTE standard license in 2013 and launched LTE services in June 2014. The ownership of the company remains with the Far Eastern Group, one of Taiwan's largest conglomerates.
Alias
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd
Country
Taiwan
Type
Network Operator
Far EasTone logo

3G Network

The company operated 2G GSM services over the 900 and 1800 MHz bands from 1998 until a government-led shutdown in mid 2017. 3G UMTS services were launched in September 2007 over the B1 (2100 MHz), with upgrades to HSPA+ implemented in November 2010, and DC-HSPA+ in 2012. In January 2018 it was announced that Taiwanese 3G networks were required to be shut down by end of 2018. FET's B1 spectrum was refarmed to provide 4G services.

Network Frequency Band Status
B1 (2100 MHz)
Shut Down
Date Event Subtype
Launch of 3G Network
Launch

4G Network

4G services began in June 2014 with the commercial activation of B28 (700 MHz) LTE. Services were upgraded to LTE-A almost immediately when in August 2014 Far EasTone announced B3 (1800 MHz) services had begun, with 2C aggregation of B3+B28. Peak data rates were increased to 300 Mbps in March 2016 the company added B7 (2600 MHz) with 2CC CA, permitting the aggregation of B3+B7, both having 20 MHz channel widths.

Holding additional 2600 MHz spectrum (2595 to 2620 MHz), FET began working with Ericsson in November 2016 to implement a TDD-FDD network with the introduction of a B41 (2500 MHz) carrier. It appears unlikely the B41 service was ever commercially implemented.

In December 2017 the company announced that it had successfully implemented 4x4 MIMO and 256QAM, taking peak data rates over 800 Mb/s.

FET began its deployment of NB-IoT in November 2017, with a full national rollout including outlying islands completed by May 2018. The network uses its existing B28 (700 MHz) carrier.

In January 2019 FET successfully refarmed its 3G spectrum to implement a B1 (2100 MHz) LTE carrier.

4G Frequency Bands
Network Frequency Band Max. Channel Bandwidth Status
B1 (2100 MHz)
15
Active
B3 (1800 MHz)
20
Active
B7 (2600 MHz)
20
Active
B28 (700 MHz)
10
Active
Date Event Subtype
Launch of 4G Network
Launch

5G Network

In October 2019 the company announced it had begun running indoor 5G trials over the 3.5 GHz C-band. FET launched 5G in July 2020, with both C-Band and mmWave services active. n1 (2100 MHz) is also available through DSS. The network became Standalone in January 2023.

The company has a RAN sharing agreement with APT.

Network Frequency Band Max. Channel Bandwidth Status
n78 (3500 MHz)
80
Active
n257 (28 GHz)
400
Active
n1 (2100 MHz)
15
Active
Date Event Subtype
Launch of 5G Network
Launch