Taiwan 3G Hopes to Break Even

Asia Pacific Broadband Wireless Communications Inc., Taiwan’s first 3G mobile operator, said it hoped to get into the black early next year helped partly by better cost efficiency through internal resource integration, a company executive said yesterday. “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.

Wang declined to reveal the specific reductions, only said the three companies will have a total of NT$14.7 billion in revenue this year. He did not provide comparative figures of last year. “The restructuring will help Asia Pacific reduce costs, but the effect will be minimal. I still believe that the company will have a rough road ahead to try and turn itself around,” said Chris Tan, a telecom analyst with Yuanta Core Pacific capital Management.

Asia Pacific is scheduled to offer two to three new handsets at affordable prices during the rest of the year in a bid to expand its customer base including one high-end cellphone from Samsung Electronics Co. The company yesterday said it aims to boost its subscriber list to as many as 550,000 people by the year-end now that users have a wider selection of handsets and affordable fixed-price packages. Full story Here.