CTM confident of competitive advantage as new player enters the market

Declan Leong (standing) discloses CTM’s strategy

With a new player soon joining the market, CTM is confident of its competitive advantage and does not fear its competitiors, said the company’s vice president of network services, Declan Leong, yesterday. The new landline service provider, MTel, is due to start operating in November, but Mr Leong stressed that CTM’s experience and quality service, as well as its recent investment in modernizing the network, will add an extra “competitive advantage.”
“We welcome competition and we are not afraid of [lower] tariffs from any other party,” he said in a press conference yesterday. Declan Leong added that they have supported the government in its decision of liberalizing the market, and therefore “welcome the new player.”
MTel has submitted its proposal on service tariffs to the government. The director of the Bureau of Telecommunications Regulation (DSRT), Mr Hoi Chi Leong, quoted by TDM, said that MTel has already shown interest in providing lower tariffs.
CTM yesterday presented the most recent figures and information on its plan to modernize the current network. Mr Leong revealed that CTM is planning to increase this year’s MOP500 million investment in 2015.
One of CTM’s major development projects this year remains the expansion of the optical fiber transmission network. Declan Leong is hoping to achieve 100 percent fiber coverage in Macau within next year.
Bidding for one of the 4G service licenses, Mr Leong said that the company is confident in providing a good tender, as they have experience and having contributed to drafting the bid documents.
However he said that it is still early to provide figures on investment in the 4G network, and how much they plan on charging customers. Nevertheless, he stressed that tariffs should not differ much from those applied to 3G mobile services.
Asked if they would consider a return of investment costs by charging customers more money, Declan Leong said CTM sees investment as a priority in order to secure a stable and reliable service for clients. However, whenever possible, they are willing to suggest to the government that charges be “relaxed”, as the MSAR’s administration charges five percent of the revenue telecommunications companies.
“At this moment, we cannot assume that the government will be more relaxed about the charges (…) From time to time, we will fight for this… we will focus on network and operation costs, and how we can save there to maintain the same charges or if possible even cheaper,” he said.
CTM has also revealed that it will increase the number of WiFi hotspots to over 1,000 locations.  Looking ahead, the local telecommunications company is also working on integrated regional development, aiming at cooperating with mainland network operators to develop bandwidth over 30G.
CTM is also due to participate in the construction of linking facilities in Hong Kong, for the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge.