Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd
TWSE:4904

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Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd
TWSE:4904
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Earnings Call Transcript

Earnings Call Transcript
2021-Q1

from 0
Operator

Welcome, everyone, to Far EasTone's 2021 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] For your information, the webcast replay will be available within an hour after the conference is finished. Please visit www.fareastone.com.tw under the Investor Relations section.

And now I would like to introduce Mr. Gary Lai, the IR Officer. And Gary, please begin.

G
Gary Lai
executive

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you very much for attending Far Eastone's First Quarter 2021 Results Conference Call. Our President Chee; and CFO Sharon both joined the call with us today. Before Chee's brief presentation, please kindly pay attention to the safe harbor statement in the first page of presentation. Let me pass to Chee.

C
Chee Ching
executive

Thank you, Gary. All right. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us. We have very good first quarter to report, but then let me start with mobile market in Taiwan, just a brief overview.

As you are all aware, the total mobile customers in Taiwan has been pretty saturated, and we are looking at 29.3 million, slightly addition from the previous quarters. And then in terms of the mobile service revenue, I think a good sign of hope is, as you have been hearing that we said mobile service has been declining, but then finally, I think it showed a sign of turnaround or rebound. And this can show in the chart on the right. So from the quarterly revenue in the NT million dollars, and you can see that in terms of the Y-o-Y. So in the first quarter '21, it is the Y-o-Y, I believe, to be minus 1.3% versus previous quarters. We were like in the 5% or even more percent as the industry. However, I'm happy to report that FET actually had their Y-o-Y turned positive in March, just last month.

Okay. And then in terms of next page. In terms of the mobile service performance for FET specifically, even though the market has been very stable or relatively cold, we still managed to continue to grow our postpaid subscribers. So for the first quarter, we managed to grow 1% of the postpaid customers. And then on the other hand, for the churn rate, then we hit another record low at 1%. So this gives us a very stable base and then to grow our revenue and then to promote our 5G programs even more.

And then in terms of the ARPU on the right-hand side. As you know, FET has been leading in our ARPU for postpaid and blended ARPU. And not only that, in March, we also have our blended ARPU turned -- Y-o-Y turned positive and then ahead of peers and also 3 months ahead of our own original projection as we projected in our last IR call with you all. So it's 3 months ahead of our original target.

Okay. And then talk about 5G. So our 5G adoption continues very steadily and still more than 90% of 5G's customers said they signed up for the higher plan -- rate plan, that is the TWD 999 or TWD 1,399, and then the average monthly fee for renewal customers has shown more than 20% of uplift. So this is where we really have been looking for and expecting this 5G monthly uplift to help with our overall revenue. And then it is definitely doing its trick.

And then currently, we already have more than 6,100 NR stations, 5G NR stations deployed. And then the coverage nationwide, it's about more than 70%. And then for the metropolitan area, that -- it is over 80%. And for Taipei, it's close to 90%. And then we target the nationwide coverage to be more than 90% before the end of the year and hopefully before the fourth quarter.

Okay. And then in terms of our 5G performance, then you probably have heard that FET has the best or the fastest 5G network in Taiwan, and we won it again, so 2 times in a row, and is certified by OpenSignal and Speedtest Ookla, respectively. And then also, Taiwan moved up to #2 worldwide in the 5G download speed. And then we definitely had something to do with that. So we are happy to report. We definitely had a very good start with 5G, how we position ourselves in 5G, is a winning position, and we are very happy about it.

Okay. And then in terms of our new economy, we also showed a very strong first quarter and looking at an 11% year-over-year growth and then in the major growth areas that include the cloud retail. And then this is actually for both of our -- coming from our major subsidiaries of the cloud retail company and then also for FET cloud that we homegrown and then provided a service is also growing. So combined, we are looking at 48% year-over-year growth in the first quarter.

In our e-commerce, while it's small, but then still, it shows significant momentum here with a 26% posted growth year-over-year. And then we continue to lead in our direct carrier bill area, and then it also shows a good growth for 12%. And the media services continues to grow at 29% year-over-year.

Okay. And some certain highlights, we -- 5G is new, so our marketing department has been very creative and innovative in terms of offering various services that are closer to our customers. So for example, one major initiative actually is company-wide, so it's not just a marketing campaign. We actually see that as a major effort for us to get closer to our customers and to build better customer engagement, and so we kicked off or deploy this customer loyalty program, which is also a platform that we call FET Mobile Circle.

And then it is already -- since its deployment that was in November last year, we had a soft launch. We already have 220 million downloads. And then we have more than 1 million active FET users. This definitely helps us to engage our users more. And then because we offer quite a variety of services with discounts or with rewards and like we use FET points. And then where they can burn the points and then use towards our shopping and some of the bills that they pay by FET services. And also this helps actually boost our shopping revenue as well because it can lead the user, the traffic to our shopping and then we see millions of dollars that they were able to convert into the sales for our EC friDay shopping.

And then also in terms of our video subscription, friDay video to our digital independent services through this mobile circle engagement, we actually see thousands of increase in terms of the new acquisition of these new users. So we are very happy with this loyalty program, which will continue to enrich the content and then also offer more things that our customers will need. And this is meant strongly, so it's an exclusive program for FET users only. And we want our customers to feel they are special via FET user, it is special. And then this is how we do it through this mobile circle.

And then we have a couple of other campaigns like we have gaming. As we know, the gamers, they are usually very loyal, and then they demand high quality of network, which we do provide good quality of network service. And then they are also -- they tend to use high-end kind of devices. And then so we have this program. We partnered with NCSOFT's mobile game Paradise 2M, and I have to admit, I'm not a gamer myself. So -- but then we have a picture on the slide, hopefully, some of you recognize that. Apparently, as I was told, that was a very famous game. It's a very popular game. And then -- so we have some promotion going on using this partnership with Paradise 2M.

Then also we have this Dajia Matsu Pilgrimage. This is a goddess, right, a local goddess and a lot of -- and actually, this is one of the most popular religious events in Taiwan. So we actually have a special package provided for customers, who will sign up for our 5G program, like a 13-month plus 6. And this is only for the local customers that are in the Central Taiwan area. So it's specifically designed for the customers there. And we actually got half of the takers were non-FET users. So that was a very good acquisition, the new acquisition. So it was target.

And also, we have Taiwan's first real 5G Smart Factory. It is co-built by us and the Delta Electronics and Microsoft. And then this event kicked off in, I think, in March, in Taiyuan and then actually see the smart manufacturing [ works ]. So you see how they use the 5G connectivity to direct their automation within the factory. So it's very amazing. And we were hoping to use this as a real live demo, and then that will attract more interest in -- from the rest of the manufacturing industries, although every industry has a different model. But then in terms of the need and the kind of flexibility of 5G and the reliability that 5G could provide over WiFi, that is universal. That is the same. So we do see that in the manufacturing area that we do see more opportunities with the 5G private network offering.

Okay. And then also, again, in our telemedicine, as we are #1, ahead of our peers, and probably the only one that is really making significant progress. And then we are recognized by our Government Welfare Department for our efforts in Taitung. And then so the government actually has made Taitung an exemplary case and then have the other regulation to follow the same suit. So for all the hard-to-reach suburbs areas that they will all follow the same model. And then we -- the government is having the budget allocated for those areas to also be equipped with 5G telemedicine kind of capabilities. We are definitely an incumbent and then the major player there.

And then we see, at the same time, not only we're expanding the areas where telemedicine is available and also the type of telemedicine services, the kind of special areas that it can cover that it is also expanding. And my team is -- my product manager is working very diligently with the medical device vendors or manufacturers and to find the right kind of equipment and with the doctors to expand the kind of services that telemedicine can cover. So it is very encouraging and very rewarding experience working with our 5G and to help with the telemedicine and to help balance the resources between the urban and the rural areas.

Okay. And then we have some awards that we -- and some recognition we received year-to-date, including that we were ranked top 5% Corporate Governance Companies, and that is evaluated by Taiwan Stock Exchange, and it is 7 years in a row. And also, we were granted S&P Global Silver Class in the sustainability yearbook 2021. And also many thanks to probably some of you, if not all of you, for voting for us and for myself, and so we're really flattered and pleased and very humbled that we were awarded Best CEO and Best Investor Relations by FinanceAsia. And we just found out like a couple of weeks ago, that was a really pleasant surprise. So then thank you all for your support, and we will continue to do better.

Okay. And then we also won the 2020 Smart Taipei Innovation Award from Taipei City for our Smart Park project. And that is using 5G to help those device makers to actually do all kinds of testing on the network entry testing. We provided the site and with a good 5G coverage for them to do that.

And then we also -- our 5G launch commercial that the [ TVC ], we worked with this [ Merry Go Round ] company. It's a small agency that we take kind of in the last minute, but then it really worked out. So we won this iF DESIGN AWARD 2021, and it was a very special global award, and we are really happy with the recognition. And also we received Best Innovative Marketing by The Excellence Magazine.

With that, I'm going to pass it to our CFO Sharon Lin for the financial update for you guys.

S
Sharon Lin
executive

Thank you, President Chee. Good afternoon, everyone. Now let me go through the financial performance for the first quarter.

The total revenue for the first quarter is TWD 20.8 billion, 7.5% year-over-year growth due to the good iPhone 12 sales and ICT [ portal ] delivery. EBITDA for the first quarter is about TWD 6.8 billion, 102.5% of the guidance, 3% lower year-over-year due to the higher 5G handset bundle subsidy and decreasing voice revenue.

Moving to the next page. It shows the Q1 financial results comparing with our guidance. The total revenue for Q1 is TWD 20.8 billion. The achievement rate is about 103%. Besides 5G good adoption and also help on our [ better ] new economy revenue such as the [ ICT ] purchase, media sales and direct carrier billing. Operating cost expense for Q1 was TWD 18.45 billion, 102.6% of the guidance due to the higher revenue.

Q1 EBITDA is TWD 6.8 billion. The achievement rate is 102.5% from better revenues, margin and cautious spending. With lower funding costs than our original print, net income for the Q1 is TWD 1.8 billion. Earnings per share is TWD 0.56. The achievement rate is about 110%.

Please turn to the next page for the first quarter key financial indicators. As of the end of March 2021, the ending cash is about TWD 4.5 billion. The total borrowing is reduced to TWD 69.9 billion. Net debt is TWD 63.9 billion. Net debt-to-EBITDA is 2.33 and in down trend. Free cash flow for the Q1 is TWD 3.9 billion. Cash CapEx is about TWD 2.2 billion and is aligned our plan.

Thank you for your time. Let me turn the presentation to the President Chee for the [ ITC ] second quarter priorities.

C
Chee Ching
executive

Okay. So when we talk about second quarter priorities, it surely is going to be our year-long priority. So we will continue to deploy more 5G stations, and we are looking to have more than around 9,000 or so before the fourth quarter. And then so our network coverage nationwide will [Technical Difficulty] from 70-plus percent to 90-plus percent in fourth quarter. And then we will accelerate our 5G adoption or penetration. So we -- so -- and we will promote our 5G new services.

We are making some differences in -- some changes in our current offer. So we already are seeing very encouraging increase of our daily sales in terms of the 5G sign-up, very encouraging. And then we will grow our new business in Smart City, Smart Manufacturing and Smart Telemedicine area. That's our 3 major areas in the new economy, and that will make good use of our 5G and also our IoT solutions, also the AI and the big data, which are the main areas that we have been focusing on.

And also, we are awaiting the Fair Trade Committee's approval our joint efforts with APT telecom for the 3.5G spectrum sharing. We already got approval from NCC. So we are awaiting for this Fair Trade Committee's approval. It is -- they are collecting information as we speak. And then hopefully, soon, that will -- they will start a formal review. And then it should be -- we should hear in a couple of months for their final read on this. And then we will continue to drive down our operations cost. And of course, we'll continue to improve our customer satisfaction. And then by use of our mobile circle, we'll continue to offer more services that is to our consumers liking and then we do some segmentation analysis and then do personalized recommendation using AI and then that will help us improve -- so for every customer that will login or sign-in to the mobile circle. They will have different experience. And then whatever information we push out to them will be more helpful to them than just a plan app.

Okay. And then also what's coming soon is our Annual Shareholders' Meeting that will be held on June 23, 2021.

Okay. With that, I conclude my presentation, and then we welcome your questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The first question is Neale Anderson, HSBC.

N
Neale Anderson
analyst

I have 2 questions, please. The first one relates to 5G, in particular, the postpaid return to growth, which I think you said that has happened about 3 months earlier than planned. So what I'd like to ask is what has changed since you made that estimate? Is it faster adoption of 5G? And how does that affect your revenue and EBITDA for the remainder of the year? You said that EBITDA is a little bit lower on higher bundled plan. And presumably, the year-on-year comps get a bit easier because of the roaming in the second, third and fourth quarters. So that's the first question. Just trying to understand that.

C
Chee Ching
executive

Okay. I got the first question. What was the second?

N
Neale Anderson
analyst

The second question is on the roaming -- I'm sorry, the spectrum sharing deal with APT. So my question is whether you expected it to take this long to get the Fair Trade Committee's approval? I'm assuming that approval does come through, does that mean you can start to work with APT immediately? Or are there things that you and APT need to set up? So there would be a little bit of a time delay before you actually implement that.

C
Chee Ching
executive

Okay. I got it. All right. Thank you for clarifying your questions. Sure. So for the number 1 question, the one that we said we are 3 months ahead of our own projection is the blended ARPU. And then -- well, first of all, when we do the initial projection, we tend to be more conservative. But then secondly, we do see -- so in terms of the bundle rate, right? So we have more bundle sales. And also the percentage of users that signed up for the higher rate plans, that is also better than our initial estimate. So these contribute to the better outcome or the sooner than we expected, okay? That is the first question.

And for the second question, so according to the policy for the Fair Trade Committee, once they enter, they start official review of the case. They have like a, 2 months is their KPI. So they need to kind of close the case and then provide a ruling or their recommendation before the end of 2 months. So they have 2 months to do that. So that's why I say, I hope they will start an official review soon. Once they feel they have got enough information, they have -- before the committee reviews it, there are, of course, a working staff that is previewing the documents that we send and then say, well, maybe you send this and that. So this is what they're doing. And then we have provided what they recently asked for, and we haven't heard from them. And so hopefully, they will start a process soon, if not already. And so from that point on, it should be almost 2 months, then we will hear from them.

And then to your question, once we hear them, so we didn't just wait. So we already -- the [ network ] team from 2 companies have been experimenting, actually doing the construction and getting where things need to be connected. We already have more than 200 stations where the connection is already done. So they are like a standing by. So once we get official approval, we can just turn it on overnight. So it is that soon. So there's no further delay than we get some work started. Now we already ready. We are ready for this to start. And then, of course, there is some service -- the APT team may need a few days to get their services, whatever, but that I cannot really speak for them. But then in terms of network readiness, we are ready for that. It can be turned on. Okay? Does that answer your question?

N
Neale Anderson
analyst

Yes. Sorry, just to clarify on the first one. So the EBITDA or the profit implication. So you're selling more higher value plans than expected, which is great for profitability over the life of the contract. But in terms of timing, does that imply a little bit more near-term weakness -- well, not weakness, but pressure on EBITDA?

C
Chee Ching
executive

The timing? Well, I guess, so the fact that I think in terms of the competition or the market, market so far has been reasonable. So I think that also helps. And then because 5G was so new. So I have to say, when my team, they were doing the projection and my CFO was giving me the projections, they usually want to [ end lower ]. So [ sounds more ] like the third quarter, right? So -- but I would push for more. But then as it turned out, we do actually do better than we initially have planned for. So I think the market being not crazy, that certainly helped.

Operator

Next, we have everyone Sara Wang of Morgan Stanley for questions.

S
Sara Wang
analyst

So I have 3 questions. So the first one is on first quarter results. So it beats the guidance. So would management please share like what's the surprise? Is that mainly from the 5G? Or we also see some positive surprise from the ICT side?

And then the second question is on the 5G ARPU lift. Just want to get the definition of more than a 20% uplift. So is that apple-to-apple, meaning the same person, like previously, like they pay -- or the same person, they pay 20% more before and after migrate to 5G?

And then I recall, December, it's higher than previous, say, 15%. So is that because -- yes, is that because like 5G pricing is the same, but we're seeing more lower ARPU customers migrating to 5G?

And then the third question is that, so far, it seems that 5G adoption or uplift in Taiwan is quite encouraging. But given like [ Taitung ], our 5G network colleague, seems to be better, download speed better and also spectrum bandwidth is also more sufficient than peers. So do management see any further upside from the 5G, either consumer or enterprise? Or do we see any divergence in the 5G performance going forward compared with peers?

C
Chee Ching
executive

Okay. Thank you, Sara. So I think there are 3 questions. The first is our revenue that is leading our own target, right? So yes, we do -- this is contributed by our good growth with the new economy. And then on the telecom side, we do see more bundled sales than with higher rate plans. And then I have to say, at the same time because the iPhone, right, so iPhone continues to be very attractive, very popular, and iPhone is higher priced. So if you follow the revenue side, so that does make it look even better. So for the above target performance, I would attribute to both the new economy growth and also the strong bundle sales with 5G. And then iPhone certainly is the choice of the consumers, the major choice of the consumers at the time, and then that helps uplift the revenue as well.

Okay. And second question you were asking about the uplift. And as you're definitely right. And then yes, so like as we started when we first launched 5G and then our top tier of users that we want to start attracting are -- those already are high rate plan because they are less price-sensitive or they can -- their affordability is high. They want to try the new thing. So they're already on the higher rate plan. So when they change to the TWD 1,399, the uplift is -- there is uplift, but still not as much. As we finish with that tier, that batch, right, and you go down to the next tier and then so yes, you have more consumers with a lower rate plan currently. And then once you are successfully moving them or upgrading them to 5G, then you see a bigger uplift. So you're definitely right there.

And then the way to calculate it and you are also right, so this is the bunch of renewed customers and before 5G, and then their current rate was so much. The average rate plan for the monthly fee for this bunch of renewal customers is so much. And then after this upgrade and what -- was the same set of the customers and what the same -- the new average of a monthly fee. So the difference is the uplift. That's how we calculate it.

Okay. And then the third, I think you were asking, since we are -- we have very good high premium network, and then we do good optimization, and we did a lot of technology-oriented optimization, we use AI, big data to make our network very efficient and then also best performance. And then we do see that as an advantage in our attracting the consumers, right? So -- and use that Dajia Matsu Pilgrim. Like I said, I would say, we actually -- half of the takers of the package are new customers. And then I believe not because of the religious event itself and the offer itself is very innovative, we've actually put the [ same ] to the incense burner. And then so that is like a [ bless ], right? That has been [ blessed ]. And then that is the package. So we only have like a limited edition for that.

But the new -- the new customers that we were able to get, they were not FET customers. If we did not have already a good reputation with our premium quality of our network, we wouldn't be able to do just [ that ]. So definitely, the quality of network, as we see in a lot of the marketing analysis or the user insight, network is one of the most, if not the most, the most important factor in terms of determining the consumers' choices. So the quality of the network definitely is very important. So we do see that as our advantage. And we are riding on the momentum, as we have won this another #1 5G network 2 times in a row again, right? And so we are working really hard.

And then on the enterprise side, the 5G quality and then the coverage, both are very important to provide a reliable 5G service for industry, whether that is the telemedicine or that is for private network, 5G network. The quality of the network, it does matter. And as we will see more applications, consumer applications, that will be available on our cellphones. People will -- consumer will really see it is necessary to have a 5G service because, otherwise, your other new applications will be compromised, your experience will be compromised. So we do see that our advantage with how we build the network and then the investment we made in our network and our NT team some diligence in their innovation in this area. That will continue to be a driving force for us to do well with 5G.

S
Sara Wang
analyst

Just 2 quick follow-up questions. So first, on the 5G consumer sentiment or momentum we saw recently. So do you think the ARPU will even further widen going forward, meaning like are we seeing consumers willing to pay for the high-speed 5G services? Or like actually some of them still think the pricing is quite expensive, and then we expect the ARPU will be relatively stable, at least targeting the same pricing to customers for some period of time going forward?

And then the second question is on the 5G enterprise side. So you've mentioned there are several applications, smart cities, smart manufacturers, smart telemedicine. So are these customers mostly public sector customers or private sector customers? And then do we see any early business model basically how we charge them? And also, like, for example, in this year's guidance, have we like take that into account, the incremental revenue contribution from the 5G enterprise applications?

C
Chee Ching
executive

Okay. All right. So the first question is about our ARPU, right? So ARPU is an average. So the more customers upgraded to 5G with more uplift, and then, of course, this ARPU will only be getting better and better. And then so that will be continuing to improve. And then we already have more than 10% of penetration for the postpaid subscribers. And then -- and then that is with the recent boost I'm seeing, I think very soon, this percentage will increase very soon. So that will only help the ARPU even more just because how ARPU is calculated. You need -- we are kind of changing the pool, right? You have less -- you ship more 4G consumers to 5G with a higher rate plan, then this will just help the ARPU totally.

And also, on the other hand, because the 4G network is congested, that's why I said when the consumers say, well, I have 4G [ phone ], that is already enough. I say, well, enough, but [ not enough ]. I mean for us, the carriers, I believe, for my peers, that's also the case. In order for us to continue to maintain good quality of the network experience, we have to continue to invest if our users stay on 4G network. But then since now we have built 5G network and with a 70% -- more than 70% coverage, very soon before the end of the year, it's going to be 90%. So there's no reason why we wouldn't better utilize our 5G network for more users to upgrade to 5G, and that will help relieve the congestion on 4G as well. So that is a win-win situation. So we need to look at it in both ways.

And then so moving more 4G users to 5G is a good thing. And the users will definitely have better experience as well. We actually see from our third-party survey for our customers, the customer satisfaction score for those that we survey the 5G users, the average satisfaction actually is higher than the 4G users. It is just a fact. So 5G is better if people only have the chance to use that. And we will have more creative offers to encourage people to try.

Okay. And then I think you were asking about the pricing models, right, kind of like for the enterprise. Yes. So well, first of all, for the smart manufacturing, that is mostly mainly private sector. Again, when it's Smart City and then a lot of, if not all of it, I should say, Smart City in most cases, if not all of it, is from the government, right? So whether it's a central government or local government, they have the funding to fund various projects that is Smart City related or smart government. We actually have some government agencies doing some big data and then needing some data platform, those kinds of projects. And we got those as well.

And then telemedicine is a combination because medical area is also restricted, right, it's heavily regulated. So the government will have the policy on the insurance, on the reimbursement, things like that. And then they set the regulation, they set the policy, like all suburb areas will need to have -- for those -- the underprivileged, the residents and all that, they need to have same access to the medical resources. So they have this program that for -- [ an offer ] like 400 or so, they identified the counties that they will be given this kind of 5G tailored medicine service, right? So that is really the government's doing.

And also, part of it is also for the hospitals, right? For the hospitals to participate in these telemedicine programs, they need to be able to use some kind of communication program, and that's what we provide. So we -- actually, FET has a telemedicine communication platform that we built with our software. And then so the remote doctors in the and hospital in the urban hospitals and also the local health centers, medical personnel, and then also the patients, right, they can all combine and then communicate on the platform, upload the image that is taken from the local health center for the patients with the telescope, right? So those kind of image uploads through this communication, and when the foreign doctor can see it right away, right, and then just as if they see the patients in person. So those kind of communication capabilities. Real time, no latency and then the good resolution to see these things clearly. And those are the capability we provide as part of the telemedicine service.

And so the -- in terms of pricing or where we actually would make our money, right? So if you think about it, first, you need to deploy the 5G, and there is some infrastructure you have to build. And some of them, we use part of our macro network. But still, for the specific health center, we may still need to provide some telecommunication infrastructure. So there is some initial construction service fees or that we may get. And then -- but then in terms of the telecommunications or the communication program, the build -- the software that we build or the platform, we do the license. So you can do the license by the hospital, like it's an MA kind of thing, unlimited use or it's a per license per doctor.

And then so we have different kind of models that are being worked. And then since this is the beginning, and then eventually, when the telemedicine service is also granted for urban folks, then we can charge the patients with some conveniency by using the application we provide. So there are actually quite a bit of different opportunities where we see the monetization is feasible. Not to mention the kind of CSR benefit this service will provide.

Okay. And then for Smart Manufacturing, so this is the initial construction because it's not just construct. You really have to design a robust network, like 5G network connection to make sure what they need to do in the factories or in the different floors, for example, can be all covered. So there is that initial design thing and where our team will need to come in. So it's kind of like a network planning, network engineering. So there is an initial setup fee. And then once we put our equipment there, usually, they will pay us like a OpEx, right, monthly service fee for paying -- continuing to use the private network. And then there's also the managed service part. If they wanted to manage their fiber networks proactively instead of just calling us when some hardware crash or whatever.

So they demand server model as well. It will all vary. But then for each of them, we will work with our clients, and we have very flexible pricing committee, and we will see what the user's needs are. And then this is all new. And then we are also learning what may be a better model, what works better for some kind of customers in some vertical versus the other. But then we have actually pricing committee formed just for the 5G private network as we were deploying this. So we had a foresight, think this is new, and we are learning it, and we want to be agile. So we put a pricing committee together. So this won't take long when we interact with our clients. But that kind of like -- so in summary, Sara, the pricing for these for these smart industries, different kind of service, it all varies. But then -- and probably next question you're going to ask me, what about the margin? I will say the margin varies too, right, margin varies too. And then it all depends.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] We thank you very much for all your questions. There are currently no questions at this point. And I then now pass the call back to Mr. Gary Lai. And Gary, please proceed.

G
Gary Lai
executive

Chee?

C
Chee Ching
executive

Okay. And I just like a departing remark for audience our here. As I -- as we said in our last IR call, when we announced our dividend, that will be still TWD 3.25. And then we said -- because we see that we believe we hit the bottom, right? I think the worst has passed, and the first quarter performance certainly is reassuring. And then we believe that we will continue to do good, to do well and then looking for a strong year ahead of us. For what we have seen so far, it is very encouraging.

And thank you for your support. And if there are questions you didn't get a chance to ask, our IR team is always standing by and feel free to reach out to them or myself. Thank you.

G
Gary Lai
executive

Thank you again. See you next quarter. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, we thank you for your participation in Far EasTone's conference. There will be a webcast replay within an hour. Please visit www.fareastone.com.tw under the Investor Relations section. You may now disconnect. Goodbye.