Local telecom operator Companhia de Telecomunicações de Macau (CTM) said yesterday that it does not want the MSAR Government to make public the list of concession assets it holds for commercial reasons; the company recorded a decrease in its annual profit for last year.
For the whole year of 2016, the telecom operator registered MOP1.08 billion (US$135 million) in profit after tax, a 6.3 per cent year-on-year dip from 2015’s MOP1.15billion.
Revenue generated by CTM also decreased in the year, registering a 13 per cent year-on-year fall to MOP4.51 billion.
According to the telecom operator, the decline in profits was caused by the tariff reduction implemented at the end of 2016 as CTM had predicted a possible MOP200 million reduction in profits following the tariff adjustment.
Last October, the company announced reductions in its tariffs for Internet services of an average 24 to 34 per cent, and for local leased lines of from 37 to 50 per cent and international leased lines from 49 to 72 per cent.
Recently, a statement from the telecommunication industry sent to Business Daily roasted CTM for unfair competition, saying competitor operators are required to pay CTM to lease its network service although CTM itself was able to use government concessions and the city’s line network free of charge.
In the same statement, the operators said that the local leased line tariff reduction enforced by CTM were only effective for private enterprises such as hotels, with licensed operators only receiving an effective reduction of a ‘single digit percentage.’
When questioned on the issue at a company presentation of its 2016 results yesterday, CEO Vandy Poon Fuk Hei said that the reductions were very “favourable discounts” with rates being calculated differently depending upon each company’s characteristics.
Keep the list inside
Meanwhile, the telecom operator said it does not want the list of concession assets it holds to be made public by the local authorities.
“Publishing or not the list is up to the government; we have our own issues with this release and not just for strategic and commercial motives,” said the company’s Executive Director, Aguinaldo Wahnon.
“The list comprises almost 40,000 different items from small to core items so this is not something the general public would have any useful purpose to have access to,” he added.
Mr. Wahnon also said that the assets granted by the government will revert to the MSAR when the company’s contract with the government is terminated, as regulated in the agreement.
The company’s concession contract was recently automatically renewed until the end of 2021.
No compensation
Meanwhile, the CTM CEO denied that the company will provide any compensation to Macao Post and the Telecommunications Bureau for its incomplete installation of the free access wireless broadband service Wifi-Go in the territory.
Last month, Bureau Director Derby Lau told reporters that a “non-monetary” compensation would be sought from CTM for not installing 25 Wifi-Go access points that still cost the department MOP422,000.
“We respected the contract requirements and promises, while following the government’s requests,” Mr. Poon said.
Regarding criticism in a recent report by the Audit Commission on the quality and speed of the public Wifi service Poon responded that CTM would work closely with the government to “enhance” the service and make it more “user friendly.”
Broadband breakthrough
According to the company’s Vice-President of Commercial Operations, Ebel Chan, increasing the scope of broadband reach was one of the ‘breakthroughs’ of CTM in 2016.
She said that the company had invested MOP1.9 billion over the last four years to develop its network in the city.
The annual report notes that the company’s 4G+ mobile customers grew six-fold annually to nearly 600,000, while fibre broadband customers went up slightly to 112,000.
The penetration rate of high speed fibre Internet services at the end of 2016 was 60 per cent, with CTM aiming to connect all households in Macau by the end of this year.
“We will work to improve the Internet speed, especially in low-rise buildings where connections tend to not be as good,” Ms. Chan said.
CTM also announced in the report that the number of CTM Wifi Hotspots in 2016 had increased on an annual basis by more than 70 per cent to 2,100, covering 900 public buses.
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In good hands
CTM said yesterday that its newly launched e-commerce platform Macau GoodHands has registered 53 local merchants. Without providing an exact number of transactions through the platform, the company claimed the number has increased by 400 per cent since the service officially launched on March 7. Planning to invest MOP5 million to develop the service, the company hopes to
increase the number of merchants on the platform to at least 150. The platform was designed as an e-commerce ‘one-stop’ service for local SME’s, combining features of the cloud computing search engine and electronic payment.
