Taiwan’s third largest operator Far EasTone Telecommunications said it will offer a 4G plan priced at TWD298 ($9.60) per month for light data users, following market leader Chunghwa Telecom launching a TWD288 plan for 1.5GB of data earlier in the week.

Far EasTone’s current 4G plan for 2GB of data costs TWD799 a month. It didn’t disclose the data allowance for the new plan.

The Taipei Times said most 4G plans with 2GB of data were previously priced between TWD599 and TWD799 per month.

Chunghwa’s new plan, however, doesn’t include free access to its WiFi hotspots. It also dropped its flat-rate 4G plan for TWD988 per month, which it modified slightly and is now only available to students.

Both Far EasTone and Taiwan Mobile have extended their flat-rate 4G plans for TWD998, due to expire this week, for an additional month, the Times said.

Far EasTone is less than 1 percentage point behind number two Taiwan Mobile, which has a 23 per cent total market share.

Chunghwa is the 4G leader with 2.5 million 4G connections, while Taiwan Mobile has 1.9 million and Far EasTone has 1.75 million, according to GSMA Intelligence.