Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom posted an 8.8 per cent drop in net earnings in Q3 after total revenue fell 1 per cent and mobile revenue declined 3.8 per cent.

Year-on-year its profit was NWD9.73 billion ($320 million) while overall revenue was down to NWD56 billion and mobile revenue was NWD26.5 billion. Although sales from value-added services rose 22 per cent to NWD8.95 billion, it was largely offset by a decline in mobile voice revenue.

Handset revenue also was down – dropping 13.5 per cent to NWD6.69 billion in the quarter.

The company, the country’s market leader with a 33 per cent share, said mobile subscribers increased 4.8 per cent from a year ago and now total 11 million. Chairman Rick L. Tsai said it aims to acquire 40 per cent of the country’s 4G users by the end of the year. But according to Q3 figures from GSMA Intelligence, its 4G share is just 27 per cent, compared to 36 per cent for Far EasTone and 26 per cent for Taiwan Mobile.

4G services were launched in May and all three mobile players have a total of about one million connections.

Chunghwa said it now has 3.08 million FTTH subscribers, which account for 68 per cent of its broadband users.

The operator said operating expenses rose 1.9 per cent due mainly to payouts for early retirement and increased depreciation and amortisation expenses on its 4G build out. It targets reaching 90 per cent of Taiwan’s population by end of this year and 99 per cent by the end of 2015.

Its capex in the quarter rose 2.2 per cent to NWD7.9 billion from a year ago, with 48 per cent allocated to fixed networks and 34 per cent spent on mobile networks.

EBITDA was off 4.2 per cent to NWD19.76 billion and its earnings per share was TWD1.25.