Shareholders of Vibo Telecom Co (
The losses are heavy in proportion to the telecom's NT$15 billion in share capital.
Vibo has repeatedly missed its break-even targets because of slower-than-expected uptake of 3G service in Taiwan on the back of pricey 3G handsets.
Even the industry's leader, Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), has admitted that it has not pulled in any profits yet from its 3G service.
Setting a more practical goal this time, Vibo yesterday said it "aims to break even by August, next year," according to Vivian Lin (
Vibo previously had hoped to become profitable in September, 22 months after its commercial launch.
To improve its financial situation, Vibo plans to raise NT$6 billion in funds by selling new shares to one or more strategic partners in the second half of this year, Lin said by telephone.
Vibo's ex-president, David Wang (王柏堂), resigned last December after failing to turn around the company. Vice chairman James Tsao (曹萬鈞) now also doubles as Vibo's president.
Vibo hopes to expand its customer base from 470,000 to 800,000 by the end of this year, Lin said.
Chunghwa Telecom says that it has more than 1.52 million 3G users out of its 8 million subscribers.
The nation's No. 2 and No. 3 mobile operators, Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) and Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) respectively, said that they each have 1 million 3G subscribers.
Last week, Vibo tendered an application to bid a Worldwide interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) in cooperation with local telecom equipment provider Tecom Co (
The nation's telecom regulator, the National Communications Commission, is scheduled to unveil the application result in early August.
"We hope the WiMAX network will supplement our 3G service," Lin said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day