China Mobile given OK to set up shop in Taiwan
It's not every day that a Chinese company gets regulatory approval to invest in Taiwan. Actually, a Chinese company has never before been given permission to invest in Taiwan's communications infrastructure, so it's pretty big news here that the world's largest carrier by subscribers -- China Mobile -- has just been greenlighted to set up a subsidiary there. Initially, they're going in under the guise of becoming an electronics wholesaler, but longer term, they're interested in taking a 12 percent stake in local carrier Far EasTone that would work out to $17.8 billion Taiwan dollars (roughly $558 million) which would represent a pretty unprecedented level of technical synergy between the nations. What's more, Taiwan is toying with TD-SCDMA these days -- China Mobile's forte -- so on the surface, the move seems to make good business sense.
