A telecommunications industry association said that plans by the National Communications Commission (NCC) to reduce fees for communications services were unacceptable and that the association would file an appeal if the reductions were implemented.
Starting on April 1, fees for fixed network communication services will drop 5.686 percent, while fees for mobile communication will fall by 5.87 percent, the NCC said.
“The commission estimates that consumers will be able to enjoy a reduction in communication charges that amounts to approximately NT$20.26 billion [US$633 million],” NCC spokesperson Chen Jeng-chang (陳正倉) said. “All 23 million people in Taiwan will benefit.”
Fixed network communication services that would be affected include Internet peering fees, leased circuit fees between telecom carriers, asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) circuit fees and charges for long-distance calls.
Mobile communication services that would use the new rate include text messaging services, voice interconnection fees and communication charges between two different networks, as well as those between mobile phones and regular phones.
The policy would be in effect from April 1 to March 31, 2011. Chen, however, said the commission is gearing toward lifting the price cap for retail telecoms prices and capping wholesale prices instead.
Chen said that both the legislature’s Transportation and Finance committees have passed resolutions asking the commission to lower telecommunication charges. He also said that a price reduction does not necessarily lead to a decline in revenue. China Mobile, he said, lowered charges by about 9 percent, which led to a 15 percent increase in revenue.
However, Liu Li-chau (劉莉秋), Taiwan Telecommunication Industry Development spokesperson, said the new policy would cause a “tsunami” in the nation’s telecommunication industry.
“We are baffled by the way they calculated our costs and profit,” Liu said. “The range of services where the new policy applies is much wider than last time, more than we can tolerate.”
“We estimate that the policy will cost us NT$37 billion in revenues,” she said. “This will cause us to reduce our investment in innovative services. We are also less likely to provide discounted services to customers.”
Liu said that if the NCC implemented the policy as it was written, the association would file an appeal to the Executive Yuan.
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