South Korea’s state-run Korea Telecom Ltd has signed a contract to buy 20% of a $109m project by Taiwan’s Pacific Electric Wire & Cable Co to operate low frequency CT-2 cordless phones in Taiwan. The project will build 200,000 base stations across Taiwan and is expected to have 100,000 subscribing households by the end of 1996. In 1995 Taiwan’s government licensed nine private companies to operate CT-2 mobile phones in northern Taipei, central Taichung and southern Kaohsiung areas. The liberalization was part of an effort by the government to open up the island’s telecommunication industry for private and limited foreign investment. Liberalization surged ahead on July 1 as the monopoly’s operations were spun off as the state-run Chunghwa Telecommunications Corp. CT-2 is a low-frequency Telepoint mobile phone covering only short distances. Rates are less than full cellular.
