Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), the nation’s second-largest telecom, expects revenue growth to weaken next year because of the nation’s anemic economic growth and slowing 4G migration, a company executive said yesterday.
That was contrasted with a 11 percent annual growth in revenue forecast by Taiwan Mobile for this year.
“We do not expect a significant increase in revenue next year, given the weak macroeconomy,” company president James Jeng (鄭俊卿) told reporters on the sidelines of a charity event.
“With five companies operating, the Taiwanese market has reached saturation. It will be difficult to make a major breakthrough in revenue growth,” Jeng said.
As 4G equipment depreciation costs are to remain heavy next year, the company would focus on efficient management of its costs, Jeng said.
The company’s capital spending next year would be lower than this year’s NT$13.9 billion (US$420 million), as most of the 4G network has been deployed, Jeng said.
The company does not have to allocate more funds for new 4G bandwidth on the 2.6 gigahertz band as its peers do, he said.
Taiwan Mobile dropped out of the second-round 4G bandwidth auction last month, as the bidding prices “greatly exceeded reasonable levels,” Jeng said.
“As long as we have sufficient 4G capacity now, we do not want to pay high prices for extra bandwidth, which would primarily be used to build supplementary capacity in urban areas,” he said.
Another bright spot is that Taiwan Mobile has eked out profits from its 4G services before including interest, taxes and amortization, Jeng said.
“We have made quite good progress in recovering our 4G investment,” he said.
A large portion of the company’s 3G users have upgraded to 4G services this year, which gave a boost to its average revenue per user (ARPU), Jeng said.
There is limited incentive for other subscribers to sign up for low or medium-rate plans, he said.
Jeng said the company’s 4G subscribes would increase to 5 million next year from more than 3 million at present.
ARPU rose to NT$870 per month last quarter, compared with NT$843 in the same period last year, a Taiwan Mobile financial statement showed.
Jeng said the company hopes to create “a new innovative partnership” given its collaboration with smaller rival Asia Pacific Telecom Co (APT, 亞太電信).
Taiwan Mobile holds a 3 percent stake in APT and works closely with APT’s parent company, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), to source mobile phones, tablets and wearable devices, as well as leasing bandwidth, he said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six