Chunghwa Telecom FTTx Nears Half of Broadband Subscribers

More than 48% of Chunghwa Telecom's broadband subscribers in Taiwan are now served by FTTx as the migration away from ADSL continues to gain pace. The carrier now estimates that its FTTx footprint will reach 80% of the island by 2015.



For Q1 2011, Chunghwa Telecom's total consolidated revenue increased by 5.8% year-over-year to NT$52.48 billion, of which 43.5% was from the mobile business, 11.6% was from the internet business, 36.6% was from the domestic fixed business, 7.2% was from the international fixed business, and the remainder was from others.



The company said it maintained its growth trajectory despite Taiwan's tariff reduction that came into effect on April 1, 2010, thanks to an increase in mobile VAS, handset sales and internet services.



For the mobile business, total revenue for the first quarter 2011 amounted to NT$22.84 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 2.8%, mainly due to growth in mobile VAS revenue relating to smartphone promotions and handset sales which offset the decline in mobile voice revenue. The decline of mobile voice revenue was primarily resulting from the shift of pricing right for fixed to mobile calls from mobile to fixed operators.



Chunghwa's internet business revenue increased by 3.6% year-over-year to NT$6.08 billion in the first quarter of 2011, mainly attributable to growth in the number of broadband subscribers and the migration of ADSL subscribers to fiber solutions.



For the first quarter of 2011, domestic fixed revenue totaled NT$19.20 billion, representing an increase of 11.6% year-over-year. Local revenues increased by 24.3% year-over-year, mainly due to the shift in pricing right for fixed to mobile calls.



Broadband access revenue, including ADSL and FTTx, increased by 3% year-over-year to NT$5.23 billion. Although ADSL access revenue decreased as more ADSL subscribers migrated to fiber solutions, the decrease was fully offset by growth in FTTx access revenue.



Total broadband subscribers amounted to 4.4 million as of March 31, 2011.



FTTx subscribers as a percentage of total broadband subscribers increased from 40.4% at the end of March 2010 to 48.1% at the end of March 2011. In the first quarter of 2011, FTTx revenue reached 63.2% of total broadband access revenue.



HiNet broadband subscribers totaled 3.61 million at the end of March 2011, a year-over-year rise of 1.9%.



As of March 31, 2011, Chunghwa had 9.78 million mobile subscribers, an increase of 4.5% compared to 9.36 million at the end of Mach 2010.



Chunghwa gained 177 thousand net additions to its 3G subscriber base during the first quarter of 2011, recording 13.7% year-over-year growth and bringing the total to 5.60 million as of March 31, 2011.http://www.cht.com.tw/