Carrefour Enters Taiwan's Mobile Communication Market

International retail giant Carrefour will cooperate with the Taiwan-based Chunghwa Telecom to provide mobile communication services in a mobile virtual network operator cooperative model.

Under this model, according to local media, the operator does not need to build its own base stations or network. Instead, it cooperates directly with local operators renting broadband resources and providing customers with telecom services under its own brand.

Carrefour will use CHT's 2G infrastructure to become the fourth MVNO in Taiwan. Carrefour's 55 chain stores around Taiwan will comprise the network of retail outlets for the MVNO business operation. The retailer has set up a subsidiary named Carrefour Telecom to operate these mobile communication services. Services will be available on two basis, one is with pre-paid cards and the other is with a fixed monthly fee of NTD99. The call charges for the above two methods are NTD0.11 per second and NTD0.115 per second, respectively.

Loic Dubois, general manager of Carrefour, said that during the promotional period, Carrefour will offer a program that enables cardholders to earn one point for every dollar spent at Carrefour stores. A hundred points can be exchanged for one minute of telephone time. In the future, the company will launch more special offers for its mobile phone users, including sending messages about Carrefour's promotions directly to the mobile phones of Carrefour Telecom's users.