Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) yesterday said it aims to expand its number of mobile subscribers to about 10 million, or about one-third of the market, as part of its strategy in a new competitive landscape following market consolidation.
Far EasTone made the remarks after last month receiving conditional approval from the Fair Trade Commission to acquire Asia Pacific Telecom Co (亞太電信), clearing the final hurdle to proceed with the deal. The transaction is to take effect next quarter.
“The number of telecoms will shrink following the merger of Far EasTone and Asia Pacific, but the market competition will intensify,” Far EasTone chairman Douglas Hsu (徐旭東) told reporters.
Photo: CNA
Far EasTone would be competing head-to-head with its rivals, which have almost identical subscriber bases, following the acquisition of Asia Pacific, company president Chee Ching (井琪) said.
The new entity would have a combined 9.2 million mobile subscribers, lagging behind Chunghwa Telecom Co’s (中華電信) 11.15 million, but ahead of an estimated 9.8 million for Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) after it acquires Taiwan Star Telecom Corp (台灣之星).
The nation’s competition watchdog is widely expected to give the go-ahead later this month at the earliest to Taiwan Mobile’s bid to absorb Taiwan Star after wrapping up a 30-day review.
As a result, the number of telecoms in Taiwan would shrink to three from five.
Far EasTone said that more than 36 percent, or about 2 million, of its post-paid subscribers, not including Asia Pacific’s, are 5G users.
To woo more mobile subscribers from rivals, Far EasTone yesterday rolled out new service plans with affordable monthly rates from NT$149 to NT$399 (US$4.66 to US$12.48) and heavy subsidies for smartphones and home appliances.
The new service plans target 4G users and their potential to upgrade to 5G service.
One of its promotions for new 5G service subscribers is a free Samsung smartphone and a rice cooker for a minimum 12-month subscription plan at NT$599 per month plus a NT$1 fee.
Far EasTone expects to complete the network integration with Asia Pacific within one month after it takes effect.
The company would operate 12,500 base stations nationwide as a result of infrastructure optimization, it estimated.
The telecom said it does not expect the merger to incur significant increases in capital spending due to base station additions.
It has budgeted NT$9 billion for this year’s capital expenditure, down from an outlay of NT$9.9 billion last year.
Far EasTone expects the merger to significantly increase its spectrum resource, especially in the low-band bandwidth, or lower-than 1-gigahertz band, which is considered the most efficient band.
Far EasTone would operate 50 megahertz of bandwidth, up 66 percent.
The company’s 5G bandwidth would also rise 50 percent to 120 megahertz.
AI SERVER DEMAND: ‘Overall industry demand continues to outpace supply and we are expanding capacity to meet it,’ the company’s chief executive officer said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported that net profit last quarter rose 27 percent from the same quarter last year on the back of demand for cloud services and high-performance computing products. Net profit surged to NT$44.36 billion (US$1.48 billion) from NT$35.04 billion a year earlier. On a quarterly basis, net profit grew 5 percent from NT$42.1 billion. Earnings per share expanded to NT$3.19 from NT$2.53 a year earlier and NT$3.03 in the first quarter. However, a sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar since early May has weighed on the company’s performance, Hon Hai chief financial officer David Huang (黃德才)
The Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robot Show, which is to be held from Wednesday to Saturday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, would showcase the latest in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven robotics and automation technologies, the organizer said yesterday. The event would highlight applications in smart manufacturing, as well as information and communications technology, the Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robotics Association said. More than 1,000 companies are to display innovations in semiconductors, electromechanics, industrial automation and intelligent manufacturing, it said in a news release. Visitors can explore automated guided vehicles, 3D machine vision systems and AI-powered applications at the show, along
FORECAST: The greater computing power needed for emerging AI applications has driven higher demand for advanced semiconductors worldwide, TSMC said The government-supported Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) has raised its forecast for this year’s growth in the output value of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry to above 22 percent on strong global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. In its latest IEK Current Quarterly Model report, the institute said the local semiconductor industry would have output of NT$6.5 trillion (US$216.6 billion) this year, up 22.2 percent from a year earlier, an upward revision from a 19.1 percent increase estimate made in May. The strong showing of the local semiconductor industry largely reflected the stronger-than-expected performance of the integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing segment,
NVIDIA FACTOR: Shipments of AI servers powered by GB300 chips would undergo pilot runs this quarter, with small shipments possibly starting next quarter, it said Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), which supplies artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp chips, yesterday said that AI servers are on track to account for 70 percent of its total server revenue this year, thanks to improved yield rates and a better learning curve for Nvidia’s GB300 chip-based servers. AI servers accounted for more than 60 percent of its total server revenue in the first half of this year, Quanta chief financial officer Elton Yang (楊俊烈) told an online conference. The company’s latest production learning curve of the AI servers powered by Nvidia’s GB200 chips has improved after overcoming key component
RSS