APBW to break even next year

August 3, 2004

Taiwan's Asia Pacific Broadband Wireless (APBW) expects to break even next year, a company executive said.

"With the help of resource integration and improving 3G coverage, we expect Asia Pacific to break even in the first quarter of next year," chairman Wang Lin-tai said.

APBW hopes to achieve a 10 to 15 % cost reduction from ongoing restructuring involving its parent company Eastern Broadband Telecom and Asia Pacific Online Services.

APBW's 3G network based on cdma2000 technology is nearly one year old but its coverage is still not completely satisfactory. The new service has attracted only 300,000 subscribers when it had targeted 700,000 by the end of 2003. The company said it aims have as many as 550,000 subscribers by year-end now that users have a wider selection of handsets and affordable fixed-price packages.

Wang said APBW plans to invest between NT$2 billion and NT$3 billion in base station deployment within the next year. (£1 = NT$54.21)

State-owned Chunghwa Telecom has said that it plans to launch its 3G service in the third quarter while Taiwan Cellular and FarEasTone are waiting for the right market conditions.