Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) yesterday said it is seeking to expand its smart city-related services to the Southeast Asian market as part of efforts to grow revenue beyond traditional telecom services.
Smart city-related services in the company’s “new economy” business, along with big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things services, accounted for about 15 to 20 percent of Far EasTone’s overall revenue, it said.
Far EasTone expects the adoption of AI technology for city management and urban planning to boost demand for its AI-powered traffic management, energy management and air quality surveillance services, company president Chee Ching (井琪) told reporters on the sidelines of the Smart City Summit and Expo in Taipei.
Photo courtesy of Far EasTone Telecommunications Co
The company expects its smart city-related revenue to grow steadily this year, as a big part of the business is based on long-term government projects, Ching said.
Last year, the company reported 48 percent annual growth in contract value for green and smart city solutions, ranging from smart meters and electric charging, to smart harbor energy management and flood monitoring systems.
To further drive growth, Far EasTone plans to enhance its foothold in Southeast Asian countries in collaboration with subsidiaries including Nextlink Technology Co (博弘雲端) and Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co (FETC, 遠通電收), Ching said.
Nextlink and FETC tapped into the Southeast Asian markets last year, she said.
Far EasTone owns 67 percent of Nextlink, a cloud service provider, and 40 percent of FETC, which provides electronic toll collection services.
Mobile services remained Far EasTone’s major revenue source, contributing 45 percent, followed by smartphones and other devices at about 31 percent, the company said.
The company has no plans to significantly expand its AI data center capacity, as most companies are still in the early stages of AI implementation, Ching said.
Only large-language-module developers require huge computing power, she said.
The company plans to spend NT$9.6 billion (US$301.1 million) on capital expenditures this year mostly on expanding 5G standalone network capacity in metropolitan areas. That is a 37 percent jump from last year’s NT$7 billion.
Revenue this year is expected to grow 6.5 percent to NT$117.48 billion, from NT$110.35 billion last year, Far EasTone forecast, attributing the growth partly due to the inclusion of NT$3 billion revenue from FETC for the first time.
Net profit this year is projected to rise 3.2 percent to NT$14.17 billion this year from NT$13.73 billion last year, while earnings per share is to increase to NT$3.93 from NT$3.81, it said.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
RSS