The decision made by the National Communications Commission (NCC) on Wednesday to have the nation’s cable television service operators present bank-certified guarantees to customers who have pre-paid their monthly service charges drew mixed reactions from lawmakers on the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday.
The commission on Wednesday issued the rulings when it reviewed the license renewal applications of two cable television service providers in Taipei. It is planning to make the requirement applicable to all service providers who have adopted the prepaid system.
Both Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yeh Yi-ching (葉宜津) have lauded the commission’s determination to uphold consumer interests in relation to the two cases.
HOPES
Lai said the government originally hoped that the capital brought in by the overseas investors could help develop the nation’s cable television industry, particularly in shoring up the infrastructure to provide digital television service in the future.
The investors loaned the local cable service operators the money they borrowed from the banks and in turn charged the operators exorbitant interest rates.
“This could potentially eat up all the profits earned by the service operators,” Lai said. “And the overseas investors can simply ignore their promises to the government here, as they can always claim their investments have not been profitable.”
ADVICE
Lai advised the commission to request the Financial Supervisory Commission to investigate if private equity firms had been affected by the global stock market crisis.
KMT legislators Yang Li-huan (楊麗環) and Hsu Yao-chang (徐耀昌), however, said the new requirement would jeopardize consumer interests because it would affect the operations of the cable television service. They also accused the commission of setting inconsistent standards in regulating overseas investment.
Aside from the cable television industry, the commission was also asked by the lawmakers to solve problems affecting underground radio stations.
KMT legislators Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) and Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) questioned the commission’s effectiveness in cracking down on these illegal stations, among which commission officials said it uncovered 301 underground radio stations last year, adding that it was difficult to eradicate them because the penalty is not harsh enough.
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