Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), the nation’s No. 2 telecoms carrier, yesterday unveiled a new digital Internet TV service and other products that utilize convergent telecoms technologies, allowing subscribers to access digital content via the Web from their mobile phones or living rooms.
These services put Taiwan Mobile in direct competition in the Internet TV market with the nation’s biggest communications company Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信). Chunghwa Telecom has more than 800,000 subscribers to its multimedia-on-demand (MOD) services that are carried over the Internet.
Taiwan Mobile’s new Internet TV service will be available in February and local cable TV system operator Kbro Co Inc (凱擘), owned by Taiwan’s Tsai family, which also holds a major stake in Taiwan Mobile, plans to launch the service in the second quarter of next year at the earliest, the firm said.
The Tsai family bought an 80 percent stake in Kbro for NT$36 billion (US$1.22 billion) from private equity fund Carlyle Group after Taiwan Mobile’s bid for Kbro failed to obtain the approval of the nation’s telecoms regulator.
Kbro expects the combined subscription for its Internet TV services to double, or even triple, to between 300,000 and 500,000 users next year from this year, Kbro chairman James Jeng (鄭俊卿) told reporters.
Before being choosen to be Kbro chairman last week, Jeng was president of Taiwan Fixed Networks Media (台固媒體), a fixed-line affiliate of Taiwan Mobile.
“This time, we will offer a different Internet TV service for people’s living rooms, rather than their mobile, tablet or other handheld devices,” Jeng said.
Despite the significant increase in subscribers, Taiwan Mobile vice president Cliff Lai (賴弦五) said he did not expect the new business to generate any significant contribution to revenue next year.
“It likely won’t be until 2012 that we see a meaningful contribution,” Lai said.
To compete with Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile would not rule out the possibility of coaxing the nation’s major multi-system operators of cable televisions, including China Network Systems Co (中嘉網路), to join the company’s Internet TV platform, Lai said.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
RSS