Phone-equipment stores cash in on new traffic rules

As new traffic rules went into effect on Saturday, telecommunication-equipment stores saw a golden opportunity to rake in millions by selling earphones and related products.

Drivers and motorcycle riders caught talking on hand-held mobile phones while driving will be fined NT$3,000 and NT$1,000, respectively. Talking on hand-held cellphones is also banned while waiting at a traffic light or in a traffic jam.

Drivers and motorcycle riders eager to skirt the new regulations are purchasing earphones or other gadgets such as phone sets or phone clips.

Chen Yen-ling (陳彥伶), a sales representative at the Pateh Road branch of Aurora Telecom (震旦通訊), said her store saw a dramatic increase in sales of earphones and other related gadgets over the past three months.

"Take August for example; we sold about 40 earphone kits for automobile drivers and motorcycle riders combined, a 30 percent increase over July and a 100 percent increase over June," she said.

Chen added that her store carried three major earphone packages: wired, wireless and those containing both.

Wired earphones cost between NT$350 and NT$600, depending on the place of manufacture.

Wireless earphones cost between NT$3,900 and NT$8,000. The Aurora brand kit containing both wired and wireless earphones, in addition to a phone set, costs NT$1,680 and is the most popular option with Chen's customers.

Another leading telecom-equipment store, Arcoa Communication Co (全虹通信廣場), saw an overwhelming increase over the past three months.

"The total sales volume for August is two times that of June and we expect to see more growth in September," said Tang Shu-chen (唐淑珍), sales manager at Arcoa.

According to Tang, earphone prices at Arcoa stores for motorcycle riders range between NT$90 and NT$400. Those for automobile drivers vary from NT$100 to NT$6,000.

Hsu Kai-ti (許凱迪), a 28-year-old driver, spent NT$500 on a wired headset which he said is similar to the one worn by Tom Cruise in the movie Mission Impossible.

"It's so cool that I just couldn't resist it," he said. "I had intended to buy a wireless one, but none of them looked appealing to me."

Hsu added that money is not a concern to him because, "What matters is style."

Unlike Hsu, Lee Ming-feng (李名峰), a car driver, said that he did not spend any extra money on earphones since they came with the package when he bought his cellphone two years ago.

"And I don't intend to buy new ones because the ones I have right now seem pretty good," he said. "Besides, I don't have extra money to spend."

Lee added that he started using earphones while driving some six months ago.