Chunghwa Telecom bullish about 3G

Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Taiwan's top telecom company, yesterday said earnings for this year would improve, helped by a significant expansion in its third-generation (3G) users.

The company, which is 42-percent owned by the government, said it garnered 300,000 3G users within six months of launching the high-speed data-oriented service in July last year.

Third-generation users would more than triple to one million this year, chairman Ho Chen-tan (賀陳旦) told reporters at a lunch. In other words, Chunghwa Telecom would hold a 50-percent share of Taiwan's 2 million 3G users for this year, he said, citing his company's projections.

"We feel the time is ripe for 3G services to take off. Chunghwa Telecom is confident in maintaining its leadership in this area," Ho said.

The growth in 3G subscribers would also help to increase the company's average revenue per user (ARPU) of the company, Ho said.

The ARPU for Chunghwa's 3G users was at NT$1,305 (US$40.31), compared to NT$733 for its 2G users, the company said. The company currently has a total of 7.84 million subscribers.

"Earnings for this year will rise," said Hank Wang (王漢朝), chief financial officer of Chunghwa Telecom, adding that other telecom services such as its broadband Internet business would be stable.

"It will be difficult for telecom operators to expand revenues as rates are falling and the telecom market is saturating," Wang said.

Chunghwa Telecom's earnings last year declined 7.3 percent to NT$46.2 billion, compared to NT$49.9 billion a year earlier, the company said earlier. Earnings per share also decreased to NT$4.79 from NT$5.18 during the same period.

Chunghwa Telecom yesterday also said it aimed to boost its return on equities (ROE) for investors to 15 percent, similar to those achieved by rivals Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) and Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), by cutting its capital.

The ROE for Chunghwa Telecom investors is currently at around 12 percent.

Chungwha Telecom has NT$96.4 billion in capital, significantly more than FarEasTone's NT$38.7 billion, or Taiwan Mobile's NT$49.5 billion.

"Massive capital reserves make it difficult for the company to reflect the actual profitability on earnings per share," Wang said.

Chunghwa Telecom took the first step toward addressing the problem last week by announcing its first-ever share buyback program. The carrier said it planned to buy back 250 million shares, or 2.59 percent of its total shares, in the next two months, at prices ranging between NT$40 and NT$70 per share.

Wang said his company would consider further buyback programs in future if the first one went smoothly.

Chunghwa Telecom shares have climbed almost 1 percent to NT$57.3 since the beginning of the year, compared to a 1.5-percent decline in the benchmark TAIEX during the same period.