Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) expects mobile revenue to remain flat over the next two years as it seeks to bolster its presence in the enterprise sector to counter the effect of escalating subscriber-price wars.
On the commercial side, cut-throat competition continues to lower telecom service tariffs, which will reduce average revenue per user (ARPU) and cut into the company’s top line, Taiwan Mobile president James Cheng (鄭俊卿) told an investor teleconference on Monday.
However, the firm has also found that most of the lower-rate plan subscribers sign their service contracts through online stores or social media partners, not in brick-and-mortar stores, he said.
That has meant a reduction in operating costs as Taiwan Mobile does not pay handset subsidies and dealer’s commissions for those subscribers, Cheng said.
“So in terms of bottom line, it [lower price rate] will not have as significant an impact,” Cheng said.
The nation’s No. 2 telecom said it would stop offering a NT$499 rate plan for unlimited 4G Internet access as of yesterday.
Its bigger rival, Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), yesterday also scrapped its controversial NT$499 rate plan that had offered unlimited Internet connection for civil servants, teachers and military personnel, although it is launching new plans with a monthly minimum of NT$469 and NT$599 for those same clients that offer unlimited connections, but at a slower speed.
Taiwan Mobile is working to improve its position in the enterprise and government sectors for its landline services, Cheng said.
“We have started to penetrate those two markets. We have landed a government tender to offer an artificial intelligence platform with our strategic partners,” he said.
The service contract is worth NT$1.1 billion (US$37.16 million), Cheng said.
“Hopefully, that will boost our telecom revenue and compensate a bit for [weakness in] mobile revenue,” he said.
“Mobile revenue, from what I see, for next two years, probably will remain flat in terms of the top line,” he said.
Telecom revenue of NT$18.47 billion for the first three months of the year was a 6 percent drop from the same period last year, while total revenue rose 5 percent to NT$30.31 billion from NT$28.84 billion, boosted by growth in TV shopping and cable TV businesses.
Net profit shrank 12 percent annually to NT$3.48 billion from NT$3.96 billion, 13 percent more than the company’s earnings forecast for the quarter of NT$3.07 billion.
Earnings per share fell to NT$1.28 from NT$1.46 the same period last year, while blended ARPU fell 4 percent annually to NT$691 from NT$720.
The board of directors approved a proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$5.6 per common share by allocating some of the firm’s capital surplus. That brought the payout ratio to 107 percent as the firm earned NT$5.21 per share last year.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
RSS