A senior telecom official said yesterday that despite Chunghwa Telecom Co's (中華電信) delayed connection of two long distance carriers since May, the government was adament about getting the company's connected by Aug. 1.
It seems the government means business this time.
"Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Chu-lang (
On Monday, Yeh ordered Chunghwa to finalize its interconnection with Sparq (
The controversy surrounding the two carriers has been going on since May when Chunghwa was originally scheduled to flip the switch. The fixed-line phone companies must use Chunghwa's network to reach end users. Rival Eastern Broadband Telecommunications Co Ltd (
Since the transportation ministry is Chunghwa's top shareholder, they have some tough decisions to make.
"On the one hand, [the government] wants to liberalize the market for new entrants, but on the other hand, they don't want the entrants to spoil [things for] Chunghwa," said an analyst who requested anonymity.
According to Hsu An-ling (
Income generated by long distance calls is split between companies, partly for use of the line running from a Chunghwa connected home, and the other part goes to the long distance line operator.
However, from a technical point of view, the interconnection is ready to go, and consumers could theoretically receive phone service from Sparq and Taiwan Fixed Network right away, Kao said. He added that although the billing system is a complicated task, "the service should be launched first" and the phone records can be used to clarify payments.
Meanwhile, the delay may be hurting the new entrants' bottom line. On the sidelines of Sparq's official launch in March, Chief Operating Officer Ng Seng Sum (
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