Chunghwa Telecom's share price has declined 5 percent since the beginning of this month to NT$56.7 on Friday.
"Full coverage and better service quality will be priorities for users when considering switching operators, not lower rates," said Shih Mu-piao (
Shih said it was understandable that market latecomers will cut rates to vie for a market share. But he doubted that those new players would have sufficient capital to support the strategy in the long run.
To brace for new competition, Chunghwa Telecom and Far EasTone more than doubled its handset subsidies for new 3G subscribers and established heavy users to around NT$10,000, from NT$4,000.
Chunghwa Telecom is also offering a new retaining program, which combine fixed-line and mobile services, by recently cutting its voice rates by as much as 70 percent to NT$1.8 per minute.
"We believe that number portability will only have a minor impact on Chunghwa Telecom. Taiwan, a stable market, will not follow Hong Kong," Shih said.
Gartner's Liang also did not expect a shake-up in Taiwan's telecom landscape. However, the new service will almost certainly boost handset sales as they expect it would become fashionable among users to have a second cellphone number.
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