STOCKHOLM -- Ericsson (Nasdaq:ERIC) has been awarded main supplier for Taiwan's first LTE tender from leading operator, Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. (NYSE:CHT), for its country-wide LTE deployment, including the Radio Access Network (RAN) and roll-out services. In addition, Ericsson has won the tender as sole supplier for the Evolved Packet Core, which includes Mobility Management Entity and Evolved Packet Gateway on SSR 8020, as well as IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem).

As part of the deployment scope, Ericsson will provide LTE RAN for the country's most populated areas, including Taipei city. Taiwan currently enjoys a mobile penetration rate of 127 percent, with close to 80 percent of subscribers already on a 3G service.

Lin, Kuo-Feng, the President of Chunghwa Telecom Mobile Business Group says: "Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. has a long and rewarding relationship with Ericsson. Ericsson is awarded our LTE tender as main LTE supplier in recognition of this, and the fact that Ericsson is the clear leader for LTE around the world."

Jan Signell, Head of Region North East Asia at Ericsson says: "This contract represents a significant deal for Ericsson as it further strengthens our partnership with Chunghwa Telecom and is testament to our customer commitment and our global LTE leadership. Alongside this, Taiwan is a hugely exciting market for mobile network development and innovation as mobile users here are passionate adopters of new technology."

Today, 50 percent of the world's LTE smartphone traffic is served by Ericsson networks, which is more than double the traffic of its closest competitor. More than 180 LTE RAN and Evolved Packet Core networks have been delivered worldwide, of which more than 110 have gone live commercially. Ericsson is present today in all high-traffic LTE markets including, the US, Japan, South Korea, Australia and Canada, and has been selected by nine of the top 10 LTE operators, ranked in terms of worldwide LTE subscriptions.

Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC)