Chunghwa Telecom has contracted Ericsson to support a 5G pilot project in Taiwan planned for early 2019.
The agreement, announced at Mobile World Congress 2018, will see the two companies collaborate to demonstrate 5G capabilities by deploying a 5G network at selected sites that operates in the 3.5-GHz and 28-GHz frequency bands.
The companies will use the trial network to test interoperability between 5G and 4G and validate innovative applications for the new standard.
Chunghwa Telecom plans to use the network to enable consumers to experience 5G services, connect local industries to their international counterparts, and create new business opportunities, while supporting its 5G pre-commercialization plan for 2020.
Ericsson has separately announced a contract with Chunghwa Telecom rival Far EasTone covering the deployment of the vendor's IoT Connectivity Management platform.
Far EasTone will use the platform to better serve its enterprise customers with NB-IoT connectivity, providing local customers with access to the global IoT market and allowing international enterprise to enter the Taiwanese IoT market.
Far EasTone predicts there will be 3 million NB-IoT devices in Taiwan by the end of the year. The operator began rolling out its NB-IoT network in November last year and has already added more than 60 partners to its ecosystem. Full operational service of the network is expected to launch in the second quarter.