Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s biggest telecom operator, yesterday said revenue contracted 8.5 percent year-on-year last month, as heightened price competition undermined its core mobile services.
Continuing declines in the voice call service sector and fewer IT service contracts from businesses and government agencies were also factors that drove down revenue, the company said in a statement.
Revenue slipped to NT$17.79 billion (US$571.93 million) compared with NT$19.43 billion in September last year, it said.
“Mobile revenue dropped because of persistent market competition,” Chunghwa Telecom said.
On a month-on-month basis, the company witnessed a rebound of 0.06 percent in revenue. It was the third month that revenue had increased after the launch of its NT$499 unlimited Internet access package in May, which reduced revenue to NT$16.85 billion in June.
Two million subscribers switched to the cheaper packages that were offered by the nation’s major telecom companies in May.
Net profit tumbled 10.5 percent year-on-year to NT$2.98 billion, Chunghwa Telecom said.
That translated into earnings per share of NT$0.38, down from NT$0.43 a year ago.
In the first nine months of this year, Chunghwa Telecom accumulated NT$27.09 billion in net profit, making up about 73 percent of its guidance of NT$37.25 billion for this year.
Revenue stood at NT$160 billion from January to last month, down 3.98 percent from NT$166.63 billion for the same period last year. The figure made up about 69 percent of the company’s revenue forecast of NT$231.47 billion for this year.
Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), the nation’s second-largest telecom, yesterday said revenue declined 1.63 percent to NT$9.63 billion from the NT$9.79 billion recorded a year earlier, but climbed 2 percent from NT$9.47 billion in August.
“The company benefited from the launch of the iPhone XS.
Handset sales helped boost revenue by 2 percent from the previous month,” Taiwan Mobile chief financial officer Rosie Yu (俞若奚) said in a statement.
The company said it saw an increase in subscribers to its high-priced service plans.
Net profit dipped 10.74 percent annually to NT$10.55 billion from NT$1.21 billion. That brought total net profit during the January-to-September period to NT$10.55 billion, 78 percent of the company’s target for this year.
Yesterday, Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) said revenue rose 6.17 percent to NT$7.23 billion, compared with NT$6.81 billion in August.
In the first nine months, revenue dropped 10.3 percent to NT$64.35 billion from NT$8.06 billion a year earlier.
Net profit fell 7.9 percent to NT$815 million from NT$885 million a month earlier. That translated into earnings per share of NT$0.25, down from NT$0.27 in August.
From January to last month, total profits were NT$7.75 billion, or NT$2.38 per share.
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