Chunghwa Telecom, the largest mobile player in Taiwan, attributed brisk growth in mobile service revenue in the opening quarter of 2024 to continued uptake of 5G plans and an increase in international roaming.

Mobile service revenue grew 5.1 per cent year-on-year to TWD15.6 billion ($482.4 million), with post-paid ARPU rising 3.4 per cent to TWD554, up for a 12th consecutive quarter. Customers migrating from 4G to 5G spent an average of 45 per cent more per month, the operator said.

Total mobile subscribers grew 4.2 per cent to 13.2 million at end-March, with post-paid users accounting for 73.6 per cent of the total. Figures for 5G users weren’t disclosed.

In the company’s earnings call, chair Harrison Kuo highlighted the use of AI-powered tools to predict network degradation and optimise energy consumption to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

He added in addition to exploring a number of AI opportunities, it plans to establish AI data centres and develop GPU as a service by teaming with local and global ICT partners.

Net income in Q1 dropped 2.6 per cent to TWD9.4 billion, with operating costs and expenses up 2.4 per cent to TWD43 billion. Total revenue increased 1.4 per cent to TWD54.9 billion.

Enterprise revenue was flat at TWD17 billion due to one-off expenses.

Capex in the quarter fell 6.9 per cent to TWD5 billion, with spending on mobile dropping 50 per cent to TWD1.5 billion.