A consortium of investors led by FarEasTone Telecommunications and Morgan Stanley signed a MoU to buy Taiwan’s largest cable-television operator, China Network Systems, from private-equity firm MBK Partners for around $2.3 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Including several local investors, the agreement will be finalised in the coming days and will allow FarEasTone, Taiwan’s third largest operator, to bundle its mobile services with China Network Systems’ cable and broadband offerings.

This will allow them to share costs and offer more services and represents consolidation of the country’s telecoms industry.

China Network Systems has 1.3 million subscribers of which one million are “fully digital”, which means they can order on-demand video and other value-added services, as well as 250,000-plus broadband customers.

It has the dominant market share in cities of Taipei and Kaohsiung.

In March, Far EasTone Telecommunications said it plans to expand its 4G user base from one million to three million by the end of the year and earlier this month joined market leader Chunghwa Telecom in cutting 4G rates.