Chunghwa Telecom Co (CHT, 中華電信) yesterday revealed a 26.86 percent year-on-year increase in capital expenditure to NT$30.7 billion (US$1.02 billion) for this year as it seeks to accelerate the rollout of 5G services in a bid to lead the domestic market.
The company has earmarked NT$9.8 billion for its largest contributing business, the mobile communications segment.
“More than 70 percent [of the NT$9.8 billion] would be spent on 5G network deployment,” CHT deputy spokeswoman Shen Fu-fu (沈馥馥) told a teleconference, adding that the company expects to launch 5G services at the beginning of the third quarter.
The company has secured 90 megahertz of the 3.5 gigahertz band for NT$46.29 billion in the first phase of a lengthy 5G spectrum auction.
While refraining from providing details of its 5G pricing strategy, CHT president Harrison Kuo (郭水義) said that the company would refer to global telecommunications operators that have already launched 5G services.
“5G applications are quite diversified, so the pricing structure is not comparative to that of 4G,” Kuo said, adding that overall revenue from the deployment of 5G is difficult to estimate due to the complexity of setting rates for enterprise clients and consumers.
Revenue from the mobile segment is expected to continue to post small annual declines in the first half of the year as market competition remains intense, Shen said.
“Retreats might even stretch into the second half of the year as 5G migration will not be that fast,” she said, adding that such decreases might be offset by sales of new mobile handsets, as the company plans to launch 5G handset bundle offers.
Meanwhile, Shen did not reveal the number of 5G base stations that the company would establish, saying only that it is under certain regulations.
CHT is also looking to invest heavily in its domestic fixed network communications segment, which last quarter contributed more than 30 percent to overall revenue, with the predicted capital expenditure for the segment raised from NT$12.1 billion last year to NT$14.6 billion.
“We are also accelerating the upgrades of our packet switching and Internet Protocol networks,” Shen said, adding that the upgrades, originally scheduled for 2026, are now due in 2024.
As part of the increase in capital expenditure is for the domestic segment, the company would also upgrade its Internet Protocol TV service this year, Shen said.
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