Sales at state-run Chunghwa Telecom Co (
Revenues rose 6.52 percent over last year to NT$193 billion, said chairman Chen Yao (
The rise in sales exceeded the company's original goal by NT$8.9 billion. In addition, the jump increased Chunghwa's contribution to the nation's coffers to NT$54.90 billion, Chen said.
In his speech, Chen said 12 million people have now subscribed to fixed network telecommunications services. These services cover city, long distance and international phone calls.
The fixed network telecom sector, currently monopolized by Chunghwa Telecom, is scheduled to be liberalized next year.
The mobile phone sector, meanwhile, has already been liberalized and opened to private operators.
Despite the competition, the number of Chunghwa's mobile phone subscribers increased from 1.4 million in 1997 to 3.5 million today.
The company has also signed up 1.3 million subscribers to its Internet service, Hinet, Chen said.
Throughout the year, Chunghwa Telecom has also increased the number of its digital GSM base stations to 2,550. The move increased its system capacity to 3.2 million account numbers.
GSM once stood for "Groupe Special Mobile," but now the letters mean "Global System for Mobile Communications" to industry insiders. Chunghwa has also upgraded its GSM mobile service, a digital mobile system, and enhanced its analog mobile system by adding 245 new AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone Service) analog base stations to the network.
Internationally, Chunghwa Telecom has formed a strategic alliance with several Asian telecom giants to construct Pacific Cable Network 2 (APCN 2), the most advanced intra-Asia telecommunication network. Chunghwa Telecom contributed US$40 million to the US$930 million project, which is slated to be completed in the third quarter of 2001.
Other companies involved in the alliance include Japan's KDD, NTT and JT, Singapore's SingTel, China's China Telecom, Korea's Korean Telecom Australia's Telstra, and Hong Kong's CWHKTI.
Meanwhile, all 12 local telecom service providers have completed Y2K tests, said Mao Chi-ko (
The Directorate of General Telecommunications (
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) forecast that its wafer shipments this quarter would grow up to 7 percent sequentially and the factory utilization rate would rise to 75 percent, indicating that customers did not alter their ordering behavior due to the US President Donald Trump’s capricious US tariff policies. However, the uncertainty about US tariffs has weighed on the chipmaker’s business visibility for the second half of this year, UMC chief financial officer Liu Chi-tung (劉啟東) said at an online earnings conference yesterday. “Although the escalating trade tensions and global tariff policies have increased uncertainty in the semiconductor industry, we have not
RSS