Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) has built more than 3,000 5G base stations nationwide as of the end of last quarter, beating its construction schedule, it said on Friday.
The company said that it was optimistic it would exceed its annual target for 5G adoption by the end of this year, as the number of subscribers has grown as expected and the launch of Apple Inc’s iPhone 12 models last month would further drive adoption.
The nation’s largest telecom said it aimed to sign up 300,000 5G subscribers by the end of this year, and reach 1 million users within a year of the technology’s commercial launch.
Photo: CNA
Since the start of its 5G services on June 30, the company has been investing in connections for 5G networks, chief financial offer Vincent Chen (陳宇紳) said, adding that the company’s capital expenditure budget this year remains at NT$30.7 billion (US$1.06 billion).
The capital expenditure budget for its largest business unit, mobile communications, is still set at NT$9.8 billion, with about 75 percent of it spent on 5G network development.
The 5G market and its effects on the company’s average revenue per user and penetration rate are totally different from 4G, Chunghwa president Harrison Kuo (郭水義) said.
“The 5G market is totally different from the 4G market, because there will be more vertical applications and it takes more strategic partners to work together to deploy the 5G services,” Kuo said.
The company has teamed up with various partners from different sectors as it develops 5G services, with a special focus on areas such as smart manufacturing, transportation, agriculture and healthcare, and autonomous vehicles, Kuo said.
“We expect to see some promising results within the semiconductor industry in the near future,” he said.
In the July-to-September quarter, Chunghwa reported that revenue increased by a lower-than-expected 2.6 percent year-on-year to NT$52.17 billion, due to weak handset sales, intense competition in mobile services and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Third-quarter net income grew 3.2 percent annually to NT$8.35 billion, with earnings per share rising from NT$1.04 to NT$1.08, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) and EBITDA margin also increased from a year earlier to beat company forecasts, Chunghwa said.
In addition, average revenue per user in its broadband business increased as subscribers migrated to higher-speed services, it said.
The number of subscribers with connection speeds of 300 megabits per second or higher increased by 80 percent annually, contributing to year-on-year broadband revenue growth for the eighth consecutive month, while virtual private network revenue contributions from enterprise customers also grew, it said.
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