CHT 1Q 2026 Results
May 7, 2026, at 3:00 P.M. (Taipei Time)
Thank you. I am Angela Tsai, Vice President of Finance at Chunghwa Telecom. Welcome to
our first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Joining me today are Chunghwa’s President
Rong-Shy Lin, and our Chief Financial Officer, Audrey Hsu.
During today’s call, management will begin by sharing our recent strategic achievements and
providing an overview of our first quarter business results. This will be followed by a
discussion of our segment performance and financial highlights. We will then open the floor
for questions and answers.
Please turn to slide 2 to review our disclaimers and forward-looking statement disclosures.
Now, without further delay, I will turn the call over to our President. President Lin, please go
ahead.
Recent Strategic Achievements
Thank you, Angela, and hello, everyone. Welcome to our first quarter 2026 results conference
call.
To begin, we are pleased to announce that our 2025 cash dividend per share is set at NT$5.2,
with a payout ratio of 104.2%, reflecting both our confidence in operating performance and
commitment to shareholders.
For 2026, we were glad to see strong financial performance of the first quarter with all metrics
exceeding quarterly guidance. Our revenue for the first quarter hit a record high for any first
quarter since 2012, mainly driven by outstanding ICT revenue growth. In addition to our strong
mobile and fixed-line performance, our operating income, net income and EPS in the first
quarter further elevated on a healthy upward trajectory. This represents a very positive start to
the year.
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Given the steady business growth, in 2026, we plan to further deploy resources for capturing
pre-6G and AI related opportunities. In the mobile front, we will continue our gradual
construction of 5G stand-alone network. The SA deployment, in our plan, is a necessity to
transition to 6G, and will be progressively rolled out in phases based on demand. Certain select
verticals, such as unmanned vehicles and autonomous driving, are using SA network. In
addition, we are extending SA deployment to high traffic areas to support commercial demands
and events like exhibitions, sport games and art performances.
Another important development in 2026 is the utilization of Agentic AI. Building on the
Generative AI Catalyst initiatives launched internally in 2025, we further expanded the use of
Agentic AI to enhance operational workflows and upgrade our service offerings.
From a revenue perspective, we continued to monetize our AI infrastructure, delivering solid
revenue growth—particularly driven by AI data centers (AIDCs). On the technology front, we
would like to highlight our self-developed “CHT AI Factory platform”. By integrating
DeepFlow solutions, compute power, and a portfolio of AI models and agents, the platform not
just supports the development of our own enterprise copilots through various AI agents, but
also enables us to offer AI-enabled applications to enterprise customers, including smart home
ecosystems and smart manufacturing. In 2026, we remain confident in the growth potential of
these AI-enabled solutions.
Finally, in the first quarter, alongside our technological leadership, we remain equally
dedicated to setting new global ESG benchmarks. We retained our MSCI ESG rating of triple
A in 2026, underscoring our position as the top-tier telco with the highest scores among global
peers by April. In February, one year ahead of the regulator’s requirement, we successfully
became the first in Taiwan to file the Group-based Sustainability-Related Financial
Information of 2025, fully compliant to IFRS Standard 1 and Standard 2, representing our
transparent ESG financial disclosure. In addition, at the forefront of the industry, we ranked in
the Top 5% of the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook for the fourth consecutive year and
maintained our position in the Dow Jones Best-in-Class World and Emerging Markets Indices.
Furthermore, we secured our third consecutive ‘A’ ranking from CDP survey, maintaining the
climate leadership position.
Now, let’s move onto our first quarter 2026 results.
Business Overview – Mobile Service
Please turn to page 5 for our success in Taiwan’s mobile market.
In the first quarter, we continued our market share leadership in Taiwan’s mobile market.
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According to data from our telecom regulator, our mobile revenue market share rose to 41.1%,
a historic high, while our subscriber share among peers climbed to 39.7%, mainly driven by
continued growth in postpaid subscribers and strong roaming performance in the quarter.
Our 5G performance was equally impressive. Based on regulatory data, our 5G subscriber
market share was up to 39.4%, maintaining our industry-leading position. The 5G penetration
rate among our smartphone users further increased to nearly 48% by this March, while the
average monthly fee uplift from 5G migration slightly decreased to 36% due to a one-time
factor.
With the combined strength of our expanding subscriber base and growing 5G adoption, our
mobile service revenue growth outpaced the industry, achieving an exciting 4.4% increase year
over year. Postpaid ARPU also grew by 3.6%, or 20 NT dollars, on a year-over-year basis. We
expect this positive trajectory to continue, supported by Taiwan’s favorable mobile market
landscape.
Business Overview – Fixed Broadband Service
Let’s move on to Slide 6 for our fixed broadband business update.
In the first quarter, we were glad to see the number of subscribers adopting service speeds of
300 Mbps and above reached 40% of our total fixed broadband subscriber base, which is
encouraging.
As a result, fixed broadband revenue in the first quarter posted a 3% increase year over year,
while the ARPU obtained a year-over-year raise of NT$20 dollars to NT$818 per month. Fixed
broadband subscribers delivered positive growth year-over-year.
Going forward, we will continue to promote high speed services, such as 500 Mbps and 1 Gbps
and above, to further enhance our customer profile and gain incremental ARPU.
Consumer Application Services – 1Q26 Highlights
Page 7 highlights the performance of our million-subscriber consumer services.
The first growth driver was our multiple-play offering, which integrates mobile, fixed
broadband and Wi-Fi services. Subscriptions surpassed the milestone of one million in the first
quarter, representing 15% year-over-year growth. Notably, our Wi-Fi penetration among fixed
broadband subscribers reached 55%, reflecting our significantly enhanced in-home coverage
anchoring customer loyalty and driving sustained ARPU expansion.
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The most encouraging performance was recorded in our video business. Thanks to the
excitement around the 2026 World Baseball Classic in the first quarter, total video subscribers,
including MOD and Hami Video, recorded a 6% quarter-over-quarter increase, successfully
exceeding three million subscribers. Meanwhile, Hami Video’s ARPU also demonstrated
encouraging double-digit growth year over year. Looking ahead, as we are preparing for the
upcoming FIFA World Cup in the second quarter and the Asian Game in the third quarter, we
plan to leverage longer-term subscription offerings to sustain user engagement across
consecutive major sporting events throughout the year.
Lastly, our digital services delivered two additional million-subscriber milestones. The
subscriber number of our consumer cybersecurity services maintained above one million
during the quarter, while the number of transacting users of our DCB services also exceeded
the one million threshold during the same period, reflecting the sustainable growth momentum
of our digital ecosystems.
Enterprise ICT Performance – 1Q26 Highlights
Slide 8 illustrates the key developments in our enterprise ICT business.
With the Group’s collaboration, our group’s ICT revenue in the first quarter increased 25% on
year due to continued expansion of emerging services. Recurring ICT revenue also grew by
11%, maintaining strong growth momentum across all major service lines, particularly
cybersecurity, IDC, and international public cloud services.
Among our core ICT service pillars, IDC, cloud, and AIoT continued to be key growth drivers,
posting year-over-year growth of 29%, 43% and 26%, respectively. IDC revenue was mainly
driven by installation projects from manufacturing companies, cloud revenue received
contributions from government taxation projects, and smart environment solutions continued
to support AIoT’s revenue growth. In addition, on a year-over-year basis, our big data service
revenue grew by 8% and 5G private network service revenue surged, both thanks to project
revenue recognition from both domestic and international public sectors. However, revenue
from cybersecurity services declined due to high comparison base last year.
We are even more proud to share that our ICT order intake in the first quarter recorded a new
high with contract value amounting to NT$20 billion, mainly representing opportunities from
network resilience projects and large follow-on projects for national fiscal and surveillance
systems. Notably, the value of smart surveillance projects obtained exceeded NT$1 billion,
underscoring our number one market leadership position in surveillance services.
In addition, our homegrown AI traffic‑flow identification and analysis technologies continued
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to win us smart transportation projects, while our subsidiary, Next Bank, also worked with us
to leverage our telecom data on loan decisions. Both represent replicable solutions for more
future projects in specific verticals.
International Performance – 1Q26 Highlights
Slide 9 highlights the robust performance of our international subsidiaries.
In the first quarter, international subsidiary revenues grew 20% year-over-year, mainly driven
by major ICT project deliveries across the U.S. and Southeast Asia markets.
Specifically, U.S. revenue surged 89% year-over-year, driven by a successful revenue
recognition of large-scale AI supply chain project, while Southeast Asia revenue increased 16%
year over year, due to contributions from a phased construction project at a key customer
facility in Singapore. We continue to secure large-scale project contracts in the U.S., while
extending this proven expertise into Southeast Asia.
Starting from this quarter, we are pleased to report our financial return from network resilience
deployment. In the first quarter, our satellite service revenue increased 16% year-over-year,
stemming from our satellite connectivity solutions across multiple sectors, including
government, multinational enterprises, high-tech and offshore energy industries. Additionally,
revenue of international private leased circuit, or IPLC, rosed 6% year-over-year, mainly
driven by the recurring revenue contribution from our SJC2 and Apricot submarine cables
starting from the previous quarter.
Excitingly, to meet surging connectivity demands, we expanded the capacity of the AUG-East
submarine cable by an additional 18 Tbps(tera bits per second), spanning routes from Taiwan
to Japan and Taiwan to Singapore. This expansion is expected to support medium- to longterm bandwidth demand across Asia and serve as a key driver of long-term revenue growth.
Business Group – 1Q26 Highlights
Now, let’s move on to page 10 for the financial performance of our three business groups.
In the first quarter, thanks to steady revenue growth in mobile and fixed broadband services,
plus higher sales revenue driven by strong iPhone demand, our Consumer Business Group
delivered a robust 6.2% year-over-year revenue increase and a solid 5.3% year-over-year
income before tax increase, broadly underpinning the Group’s outperformance.
For Enterprise Business Group, its revenue rose by 8.5% year-over-year, driven by strong ICT
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business and growth in mobile and fixed broadband services. However, its income before tax
dropped by 2.7% mainly due to fixed voice service decrease, which offset the growth in ICT
business as mentioned earlier.
For International Business Group, both of its revenue and income before tax grew positively,
by 10.7% and 1.6%, respectively, driven by rising ICT service demand from the overseas AI
supply chain, together with stronger roaming performance.
That concludes the business overview for the first quarter. Now, I would like to hand the call
over to Audrey for financial updates.
Financial Overview
Thank you, President. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I am
pleased to walk you through our financial performance for the first quarter of 2026. Please turn
to Slide 12.
Income Statement Highlights
We reported consolidated revenue of NT$59.99 billion this quarter. This represents a 7.5%
year-over-year increase. It is also a record high for the first quarter. This growth was driven by
three key factors. First, our ICT business delivered strong momentum. This was supported by
integrated projects, IDC and cloud demand, and AIoT expansion. Second, sales revenue was
very strong. This was mainly driven by handset demand at both the parent company and our
subsidiary, Senao. Also, our subsidiary, Chunghwa Precision Test Tech also contributed
meaningfully. Third, our core telecom business remained stable.We saw steady growth in
mobile, broadband, and data services.
Income from operations increased by 4.6%. This growth was supported by the sustained
profitability of our core telecom business, as well as strong earnings contributions from our
subsidiaries, Senao and Chunghwa Precision Test Tech. In addition, the recognition of highervalue integrated projects, together with the continued scaling of our IDC and cloud operations,
further improved our operating margins and overall earnings quality.
As a result, earnings per share (EPS) increased from NT$1.26 to NT$1.30, reflecting our
consistent profitability and marking the highest first-quarter EPS in the past ten years. EBITDA
for the quarter remained stable at NT$23.30 billion, with a healthy EBITDA margin of 38.85%.
In summary, these results reflect high-quality earnings growth across our business segments.
Please turn to Slide 13 as we move on to our Balance Sheet highlights.
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Balance Sheet Highlights
Total assets increased by 2.3% year-to-date, primarily driven by a rise in current assets. This
was led by an increase in time deposits and NCDs, along with seasonal increases in prepaid
expenses, inventories, and accounts receivable to support our business operations. Additionally,
investment properties rose following the completion of new rental sites, while the net decrease
in PPE reflects depreciation charges for the period.
On the liabilities side, total obligations increased by 1.1% compared with year-end 2025. This
increase was mainly attributable to higher bonds payable, driven by the issuance of convertible
bonds by our subsidiary, Chunghwa Precision Test Tech. Aside from this, our liability structure
remained stable.
Our financial strength is further reflected in our key ratios. The debt ratio improved to 24.92%,
while the current ratio remained healthy and well above 100%. Most notably, our net debt-toEBITDA ratio stood at zero, highlighting our solid financial position.
Cash Flow Summary
Moving to Slide 14 for our Cash Flow Summary, where we will review our performance for
the first quarter of 2026. Net cash provided by operating activities remained healthy in the first
quarter. Year-over-year changes in operating cash flow were mainly driven by working capital
movements. Lower cash inflows from accounts receivable were largely offset by reduced cash
outflows from accounts payable. Additionally, we saw an increase in cash outflow related to
inventory movements, reflecting our efforts to support upcoming business expansion.
On the investment side, CapEx totaled NT$4.55 billion, representing a planned year-over-year
decrease of 15.9%. Mobile CapEx declined by 24.4%, in line with our strategy to gradually
reduce capital intensity as we move beyond the peak of the 5G deployment cycle. Non-mobile
CapEx decreased by 12.8%, mainly reflecting a higher base in the previous year. As a result,
free cash flow reached NT$6.64 billion. Despite modest year-over-year fluctuations, our cash
position remains very solid. Our recurring cash generation continues to comfortably support
both business expansion and shareholder returns.
Operating Results vs. Forecasts
Turning to Slide 15 for our performance highlights relative to guidance. In the first quarter of
2026, we delivered strong results, with revenue exceeding our guidance. This performance was
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supported by continued growth in our ICT business, stable contributions from our core telecom
operations, and stronger-than-expected sales revenue.
Most importantly, revenue growth continued to outpace the increase in operating expenses,
reflecting improved operating efficiency and disciplined cost management. While certain
project-related costs increased alongside higher ICT revenue recognition, overall cost control
remained well within expectations. As a result, all key profitability metrics, including operating
income, net income, EPS, and EBITDA, came in above expectations for the quarter.
This concludes our financial results highlights. Thank you for joining us today. We will now
open the call for questions.
Q1 online platform：
How sustainable is the ICT business, and what is the outlook for the rest of the 2026 and
beyond, and what is the impact of AI on the IT services industry?
CHT (Angela Cho-Fen Tsai )：For the ICT business for the year 2026, we think we remain
confident and positive for the outlook of our overall ICT business. It is because of the
organic growth from the ICT services and AI value creation. Most of the digital services
that we provide for the consumers or for the enterprise sectors, actually in this year, we
introduced the agentic AI, so which can also help to upgrade some services to meet or
cater to the enterprises’ customers' requirements. So, I think for this part, it also can
contribute some revenue to the ICT business. But in terms of the impact of AI on the IT
services, I think for this part, the major impact came for our enterprise sectors. And just
like I said, we think that we can introduce AI to enhance the services and provide value
and bring in the revenues for our overall revenue growth.
Q2 online platform：
You had guided for a higher non-mobile CapEx for 2026 estimation. Could you please
elaborate on that? And could you get an underlying trend within the non-mobile CapEx
guidance?
CHT (Angela Cho-Fen Tsai)：For the non-mobile CapEx for 2026 estimates, that's
because we have some CapEx increase for IDC construction. Because in 2026, we have
some AIDC construction in our pipeline. So, we allocate some CapEx for the construction.
And like our President reported earlier during the result call, we continue to invest in the
construction of undersea cable then to enhance our network resilience. And the undersea
cable also continues to contribute to our total revenue for this year. So, that's why we
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raised our non-mobile CapEx for year 2026.
CHT (Audrey Wen-Hsin Hsu)：Okay. I can also add on for the two previous questions.
The first question is about how sustainable of the ICT. I just want to provide some
overview, that because due to the digital transformation demand in the industry, so we do
see that the ICT demand is quite sustainable. So, this is the first part for the question. And
the second part for the non-mobile-related CapEx. Non-mobile related CapEx, in fact, it
basically includes some fixed-line, satellite, IDC, AIDC, PSTN and overall, there are
three focus. The main focus is on resilience and life cycle management. So, we need to
make sure that the core network can ensure security and resilience. And also, the second
part is that we also – there is some necessary investment to strengthen our critical
infrastructure defense. And finally, we need to make sure we also expand our user capacity
to meet the 2026 business plan demand for AIoT and 5G traffic. So, this also includes
some of the functionality in the select area to future-proof the network. So, these are our
non-mobile-related CapEx. But compared to last year, because last year we had a high
basis. So, you could see the slight decrease of non-mobile CapEx in this quarter.
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