Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom and Chinese mainland's China Telecom will cooperate in the launch of Wi-Fi mobile Internet roaming service.
Chunghwa Telecom said that due to the popularization of smartphones and tablet computers, and as the cross-strait communications and exchanges become more frequent, the demands for cross-strait voice and data roaming services are increasing rapidly. Prior to this, Chunghwa Telecom had lowered its voice roaming fees and offered data roaming preferential policies. Starting from August 2011, it will also launch Wi-Fi mobile Internet roaming services.
According to statistics provided by the Tourism Bureau of Taiwan, in 2010 about 2.42 million mainland travelers visited Taiwan, increasing by 60% over the prior year. Chunghwa Telecom's development of Wi-Fi roaming service with the Chinese mainland operator aims to meet customers' demands for mobile, fast, stable, and cost-effective Internet roaming service.
Chunghwa Telecom announced that its Taiwanese users who travel to the Chinese mainland can enjoy China Telecom's Wi-Fi Internet service at the price of CNY2 per minute. In the past, the price for international mobile Internet roaming was between CNY5 and CNY8 per minute.
Chunghwa Telecom plans to set up 20,000 Wi-Fi hot spots in Taiwan before the end of this year. Meanwhile, China Telecom will provide preferential Wi-Fi service to its CDMA users. So far, China Telecom has developed 120,000 Wi-Fi hot spots and it plans to establish one million additional hot spots over the next three years.
