Far EasTone Telecommunications (FET), one of the three largest mobile telecom carriers in Taiwan, will procure 2.5 million handsets of which most will be smartphones, as well as 360,000 tablets in 2014 for contract-bundled sale, according to the company.

　　Of the smartphones, the proportion of entry-level models will be hiked from 40% in 2013 to 50% in 2014 and mid-rage models will rise from 10% to 15%, respectively, while that for high-end model will decrease from 50% to 35%, FET pointed out.

　　The number of 2G mobile communication subscribers has continually dropped to less than one million currently and FET hopes to shift at least 500,000 subscribers from 2G to 3G in 2014, the company indicated.

　　FET was the first telecom carrier in Taiwan to begin contract-bundled sale of smartphones developed by China-based vendor Xiaomi Technology. There were more than 200,000 Xiaomi smartphones sold in the Taiwan market in 2013, FET noted.