Kbro sets sights on broadband subscribers

• By Lisa Wang / Staff reporter

Kbro Co (凱擘), the nation’s biggest cable television system operator, yesterday said that, together with Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), it aims to expand its number of broadband subscribers to 1 million by the fourth quarter of next year by offering high-speed broadband services suitable for 5G-related applications.

That would be an increase of 19 percent from 840,000 broadband users as of the end of last month, the company said.

Kbro and Taiwan Mobile fall under the same corporate umbrella and are controlled by the Tsai (蔡) family, which also operates the nation’s second-biggest financial service provider, Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控). Taiwan Mobile operates cable TV and broadband businesses through its subsidiary Taiwan Fixed Network Co (台灣固網).

Photo: CNA

As Chunghwa Telecom Co’s (中華電信) broadband market share has fallen to about 72 percent, there is room for cable TV and broadband companies to vie for a bigger slice of the remaining 28 percent, Kbro chairman James Jeng (鄭俊卿) told reporters on the sidelines of an event to launch the company’s new home security services, which use artificial intelligence technology from Umbo CV Inc (盾心科技).

Six months ago, Kbro teamed up with Taiwan Mobile to increase their broadband customer base by bundling mobile and fiber-optic broadband services in a single package.

Half of its new broadband service subscribers signed on thanks to the partnership, Jeng said.

Kbro is accelerating its efforts to shift its focus to higher-margin broadband services, as the nation’s cable TV market has shrunk at an annual rate of 2 to 2.5 percent over the past few years to fewer than 5 million households in the first quarter of this year, he said.

“It is a must for local cable TV operators to transform themselves into something else,” Jeng said. “Kbro has redefined the company’s role.”

Kbro does not consider itself just a cable TV company, as it aims to become a technology firm focusing on Internet services, he said.

Broadband services deliver a much better margin than cable TV, he said.

“If we can grow our broadband users to 900,000 [households] by the end of this year, we believe that hitting 1 million [users] by the fourth quarter of next year is an achievable target,” Jeng said.

To reach that goal, Kbro plans by next month at the earliest to launch a new service integrating its high-speed broadband services with Taiwan Mobile’s 5G services, enabling subscribers to better access high-definition videos and other applications that require high-speed data transmission of up to 1 gigabit per second, Jeng said.

Kbro’s fixed network would make up for the poorer indoor coverage of 5G, as the nation’s 5G network is delivered on a high-frequency band, he said.