The nation’s three major telecom operators reported net profit last month that beat their respective forecasts due to revenue contribution from 5G subscribers.
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) said net profit last month rose 2.2 percent to NT$3.16 billion (US$113.29 million) from a year earlier, or earnings per share (EPS) of NT$0.41.
Chunghwa Telecom said that it expects EPS this quarter to be NT$1.08 to NT$1.10, beating its average first-quarter EPS of NT$0.36.
Photo courtesy of Chunghwa Telecom Co
“Core business has extended the growth trend,” the company said in a statement on Monday. “Growth in 5G subscribers has propped up post-paid average revenue per user [ARPU] and mobile service revenue.”
Chunghwa Telecom’s ARPU rose for a ninth straight quarter in the fourth quarter last year to NT$755 from NT$722 in the second quarter of 2020, when it launched its 5G services.
Revenue increased 1.2 percent year-on-year to NT$17.42 billion last month, exceeding its average January revenue of NT$17.18 billion.
“Compared with the company’s first-quarter financial forecast, revenue, operating profit, pretax profit and EPS are exceeding the company’s expectations,” it said in the statement.
Chunghwa Telecom said that it aims to boost its 5G penetration rate to 30 percent of its total subscribers this year from 20 percent last year.
The company has no plans to launch a low-Earth-orbit satellite service this year with SpaceX chief executive officer Elon Musk’s Starlink project, Chunghwa Telecom chairman Sheih Chi-mau (謝繼茂) told a virtual media briefing.
However, technology exchanges with SpaceX have been going well, Sheih said.
Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) said net profit last month expanded 8.1 percent year-on-year to NT$940 million, or EPS of NT$0.33.
The company said that its 5G, e-commerce and home broadband operations were three major growth drivers.
Revenue rose 13.2 percent to NT$14.13 billion, with mobile service revenue up 2 percent annually, while e-commerce revenue jumped 28 percent.
Far EasTone Telecom Co (遠傳電信) said net profit jumped more than 27 percent annually to NT$767 million last month, or EPS of NT$0.24.
Revenue rose 8.36 percent to NT$8.04 billion, largely due to growth in mobile, and information communications and technology services, Far EasTone said.
Robust 5G smartphone sales during the Lunar New Year holiday have quickened the pace of subscribers’ upgrade to its 5G services, it said.
Its ARPU has improved for 11 months in a row, the company said.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
RSS