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Taiwan Telecommunications Report Q4 200Product Type: Market Research ReportPublished by: Business Monitor International Published: October 2009 Product Code: R302-8539 Description BMI’s latest update on Taiwan’s telecommunications market assesses the growth and development of themarket in the first six months of 2009. The update incorporates the latest financial and operational datapublished by the country’s leading telecoms operators: Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile and FarEasTone (FET). In addition to containing revised forecasts, which predict the development of thecountry’s fixed-line, internet and mobile subscriber markets over the next five years, our update includesa new forecast for Taiwanese mobile ARPU levels. BMI predicts that, after a significant fall in 2008, theblended ARPU levels of Taiwan’s three largest mobile operators will remain relatively stable in 2009.Mobile ARPU levels are benefiting from the heightened consumer sentiment which has accompaniedsigns that the worst period of economic contraction has passed. Recent months have witnessed a warming of relations between Taiwan and China, a development whichhas raised the prospect of significant investment flows. The new climate of co-operation is also manifestin the telecoms sector. For example, in August, it was reported that China Mobile, China’s leadingmobile operator, was planning to hold talks with Taiwan’s incumbent operator, Chunghwa Telecom, inorder to co-operate in the field of 3G value-added services (VAS) and applications. Earlier, in June 2009Chunghwa Telecom and China Telecom announced plans to lay a submarine cable across the TaiwanStrait. Meanwhile, in July it was reported that Taiwan’s third-largest mobile operator, Far EasTone,planned to form a joint venture in China with China Mobile in the first quarter of 2010. China Mobilepreviously announced in April that it would pay US$529mn for a 12% stake in Far EasTone. Thecompanies plan to co-operate closely in a number of areas, including procurement, roaming services, dataand VAS, and network and technology advancement. The deal was understood to be the first directinvestment in the island by a mainland-based company in over 60 years, and came one day after theChinese Ministry of Commerce lifted a ban on investments in Taiwan. BMI calculates that Taiwan’s mobile subscriber base grew by 2.5% in the first six months of 2009. Bythe end of June, there were over 26mn Taiwanese mobile customers, giving the country a penetration rateof around 111%. BMI’s figure for the total subscriber base is based on data published by the country’sthree largest mobile operators. The strong mobile customer growth in the first half of 2009 has led us toraise our expectations for the year as a whole. We have also raised our expectations for the number of 3Gsubscribers, following evidence that the sector grew by over 19% in the first half of the year. By the endof 2009, we now predict that nearly 59% of Taiwanese mobile customers will have 3G-enabled handsets. Taiwan remains in seventh place ranking in BMI’s latest set of Business Environment Rankings for theAsia Pacific region. Although Taiwan scores below the regional average in the telecoms market category,its other scores are all above average. In the case of regulatory independence and country risk, Taiwan’s Table of Contents
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