Chunghwa eyeing China's 3G market

The nation's leading telephone operator Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) is looking to China's third-generation (3G) mobile phone market despite strict government restrictions on such investments, a report said yesterday.

The Financial Times quoted Chunghwa Telecom chairman Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) as saying that the company planned to team up with China Telecom and China Netcom once they obtained 3G licenses.

The company expects Chinese-language data content to be the engine of future growth, the newspaper said.

Currently, Chunghwa Telecom has 1.03 million 3G subscribers and 7.5 million 2G users. It expects its 3G subscribers to rise to 2.2 million by the end of this year from 850,000 last year.

Hochen said he had started to lobby the government to amend regulations banning local telecom companies from investing in the industry in China or to offer services there.

Chunghwa Telecom also plans to take an indirect stake in a small Chinese telecom company through a third-country holding, as well as to invest in telecom operators in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia, he said.

The government's stake in Chunghwa Telecom has been reduced to 34.76 percent following its privatization in August 2005.

Meanwhile, Chief Telecom Inc (是方電訊), which is a subsidiary of Chunghwa Telecom, said yesterday it has obtained the nation's first Voice over Internet Protocol license and will provide the services from the second half of the year.