The National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday it was withdrawing some of the unused mobile phone numbers from second-generation (2G) telecom networks.
NCC spokesperson Chen Jeng-chang (陳正倉) said that following a review of the use of 2G mobile phone numbers at the three largest 2G service providers, Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone Telecommunications Co, it found that both Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone had not used about half of the numbers given to them.
“The commission considered that this was a rather inefficient use of resources,” Chen said. “We will ask them to hand back some of the unused numbers so we can put them to better use.”
UNUSED NUMBERS
NCC statistics showed that 10.7 million 2G mobile phone numbers were allocated to Chunghwa Telecom and, as of October, about 76 percent had been used. Taiwan Mobile was allocated 13.7 million numbers and Far EasTone 12 million. Only about 41 percent and 50 percent had been used respectively.
Liao Li-hsiang (廖麗香), an NCC division chief, said the low usage rates at Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone were caused by their mergers with other telecoms carriers. Aside from taking over other firms, they also took over their unused 2G numbers, she said.
When telecoms carriers apply for phone numbers for third-generation (3G) cellular phone networks in future, the NCC will “recycle” the unused 2G numbers, she said.
MINIMUM USAGE RATE
The NCC is considering setting a minimum usage rate of 70 percent, Liao added, saying that firms that fail to reach the threshold would have to hand back some of their unused numbers.
Statistics from the NCC showed that 9.8 million 3G mobile phone numbers have been issued to Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile, Far EasTone, Vibo Telecom and Asia-Pacific Telecom. Approximately 8 million had been used as of October, with the average usage rate reaching 83 percent.
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