Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (FET, 遠傳電信), the nation’s No. 3 telecom, expects revenue to continue its downward trend next year, due mainly to a NT$499 per month unlimited data plan launched this year, a company executive said yesterday.
The company also blamed the plan for missing its third-quarter revenue projection and lower average revenue per user.
Average revenue per user last quarter dipped 7.08 percent to NT$787 from NT$874 in the second quarter, as subscribers switched to the NT$499 plan from more expensive plans by paying a fee, the company said.
Two million mobile subscribers nationwide switched to NT$499 unlimited data monthly plans offered by the nation’s telecoms, National Communication Commission data show.
That led to a 9.8 percent quarterly decline in combined revenue of the telecoms, the data show.
FET last quarter saw its revenue shrink 6.11 percent from the previous quarter to NT$21.06 billion (US$684.41 million). The figure corresponded to 94 percent of the firm’s guidance of NT$22.43 billion.
“For the whole telecom industry, the top-line downtrend is derived mostly from the implementation of the NT$499 flat-rate plan, which was introduced in May,” company president Yvonne Li (李彬) told an investors’ conference.
“The effects have lasted for a half year and we expect they would continue throughout next year,” Li said.
“Mobile connectivity revenue will also continue to trend down next year. However, we are seeing an uptrend elsewhere, such as in [value-]added revenue from ICT [information and communication technology] services,” she said.
FET hopes ICT services, one of its fastest-growing segments, will help compensate continued declines in mobile revenue.
It expects the number of ICT project contracts this year to surge 73 percent from last year, Li said.
FET said new services, including ICT, Internet of Things and security businesses, made up 9.5 percent of total revenue last quarter.
Net income last quarter fell 2.24 percent to NT$2.63 billion from NT$2.68 billion in the previous quarter. That represented an annual decline of 8.07 percent from NT$2.85 billion.
Separately, FET has signed an agreement with Nextlink Inc (Cayman) to acquire 70 percent of Nextlink Technoloy Co Ltd (博弘雲端科技) for NT$420 million via its subsidiary New Century InfoComm Tech Co Ltd (新世紀資通), the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The transaction would help New Century InfoComm Tech and FET build a bigger presence in the cloud computing service market and boost profits for both companies, the filing 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
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],”