Taiwanese full service telecoms provider Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) is now reportedly aiming to offer its 100Mbps asymmetrical broadband service to around 70% of the population by the end of this year. Having initially set itself a target of 30% coverage before end-2012, according to the Digitimes the telco has increased the value of equipment it is purchasing to facilitate a more comprehensive rollout; it is understood that CHT now expects to spend some TWD3 billion (USD100 million) in the second half of the year on purchasing hardware.
Among the equipment that the telco will purchase are: a gigabit passive optical network (GPON), said to be worth between TWD700 million and TWD800 million; multi-service access nodes (MSANs) valued at TWD1 billion; broadband aggregation network multi-service edge routers (MSERs) worth around TWD1 billion; and routers used in IP backbone networks worth over TWD300 million. More than 70% of the equipment in terms of value is expected to be sourced from local suppliers.