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Government wants more high-speed Internet households

The government said yesterday that it would double the coverage of the nation's high-speed fiber optic network to 1 million households by the end of next year by encouraging construction firms to include broadband networks in new projects.

By the end of this year, 500,000 families are expected to be able to connect to higher-speed Internet connections on fiber optic cables rather than on existing copper phone lines,the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Industrial Development Bureau said.

"It is becoming a trend for construction companies to work with telecom companies to provide fiber optic networks for new buildings in order to lure buyers," said Leu Jang-hwa (呂正華), a director of the bureau.

No incentives were given to construction firms or telecom operators, though, he said.

In Asia, Japan, which had 9.96 million households linked to fiber optic connections in June, is taking the lead in building fiber optic networks. China is also working to catch up in order to provide wider bandwidth during the Beijing Olympics next year, Leu said.

In Taiwan, households with fiber optic connections are predicted to rise to more than 2.5 million by 2010, and account for approximately 25 percent of total broadband users, replacing existing Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) technology, that provides data transmission via copper phone lines, Leu said.

Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation's largest telecoms operator, is the only provider offering a broadband service on fiber optic. The company plans to spend NT$60 billion building its fiber optic network in the next five years, the firm said early this year.

The telecoms carrier also hopes to increase the number of customers connected via fiber optics to 500,000 by the year's end. It expects 2.4 million to be connected by 2010, compared to 170,000 households as of March.

As of last month, the company had 470,000 subscribers.
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