Chunghwa Telecom Chairman Rick Tsai stated that it will still take a few years to develop 5G technology, and Chunghwa Telecom will strengthen the development of application service technologies. Currently Chunghwa Telecom is actively investing in experimental networks. Although it is not the world’s first mobile company to launch 5G experimental networks, it will definitely increase the pace.

Currently Chunghwa Telecom Laboratories has a yearly research budget of over NT$3 billion and approximately 1,500 research personnel. There are between 20 and 30 people in the 5G research team, but in the future the number of research and development personnel and the budget for 5G may increase.

He added that Chunghwa Telecom has already begun to layout its 4.5G technology, including 900MHz and 1800MHz carrier aggregation (CA).

In addition, Rick Tsai will attend the Mobile World Congress (MWC) on March 2 and observe the state of each country’s 5G technological development. He will also meet with HTC CEO Cher Wang to sign a strategic partnership.

(TR/Phil Sweeney)