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Vibo confirms plan to lower spending 44% in year ahead

The nation's third-generation (3G) dedicated mobile operator Vibo Telecom Inc (威寶電信) yesterday confirmed that it planned to lower its capital spending by 44 percent for this year to focus on further improving its network coverage.

Vibo plans to spend NT$2 billion (US$66 million) largely on adding new base stations, company president Chang Feng-hsiung (張豐雄) said in a telephone interview. Last year, Vibo spent NT$3.6 billion on new equipment.

"Most of the spending will be for adding more [3G] base stations and part of the the money will be for upgrading [some base stations to] 3.5G," Chang said.

Vibo aims to add 1,000 base stations to its current 4,500 base station nationwide, which would boost population coverage to 98 percent.

The telecom company has about 600,000 subscribers and it hopes to expand the customer base to more than 1 million by the end of the year.

Chang said that Vibo also targeted to boost its revenue to NT$6 billion this year, which would mean about 43 percent growth from last year's NT$4.19 billion.

Early this year, Chang said that it would be crucial for the mobile operator to break even by expanding its subscriber base and revenues.

The company posted NT$1.98 billion in losses for the first half of last year and it is required to report the latest financial results by the end of this month.

Vibo is considering a new round of share sale to raise more money for operational expenses, Chang said. Last year, Vibo obtained NT$6 billion in capital by selling shares to major shareholder Kinpo Group (金仁寶集團).

But this year Vibo aimed to introduce new strategic partners through the share offering, chairman Rock Hsu (許勝雄) said early last month during a media gathering.

The telecom company's board directors is set to meet soon to discuss an agenda that would include the new share sale plan, Chang said. Currently, Vibo has 2.1 billion outstanding shares.
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