Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) plans to purchase a total of 3,000 femtocell base stations, which has attracted four international telecom vendors - Nokia Siemens Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, Samsung Electronics and NEC - to participate in the bidding, according to information provided by CHT.

Due to the testing and verification processes involved, CHT is expected to announce the winner of the femtocell project at the earliest in September, according to market sources who are familiar with the project.

Although the value of the femtocell contract will be worth less than NT$100 million (US$3.3 million), Taiwan-based network-equipment makers, including Tecom, Sercomm, Gemtek Technology and D-Link, are likely to benefit from the deal by taking up femtocell orders from the winner, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) said in a July 23 report.