The Consumers’ Foundation yesterday said telecommunications companies should charge lower rates for 2G mobile services than for those operating on the 3G system, citing the lower costs for companies to establish and maintain 2G networks.
The foundation said that despite requests by the National Communications Commission in April for telecom companies to lower rates for 2G and 3G mobile services and texting services, the companies’ second-quarter earnings have grown rather than shrunk, which shows there is still room for telecom service providers to offer lower rates.
“The earnings reports show that even if telecom companies lower their rates, they can still find ways to turn profits in other ways, which means that consumers are still getting the shorter end of the deal,” foundation chairman Hsieh Tien-jen (謝天仁) said.
Using one of Chunghwa Telecom’s package deals as an example, the foundation said its reports showed the company charges NT$0.1553 per second for calls made to outside telecom networks via 2G and NT$0.1506 per second for calls made to outside networks via 3G.
Hsieh said it was not reasonable for companies to charge higher rates for 2G services, as the costs of establishing and maintaining 3G networks were much higher, and it was obvious that the prices did not reflect the costs to telecom companies.
The chairman said companies should not use skewed pricing structures to induce customers to choose 3G over 2G because 2G rates are kept artificially high.
Consumers should be encouraged to make purchasing decisions on mobile devices and service plans according to what is suitable to meet their needs, rather than being misled by low rates or discount offers in exchange for using devices or plans that do not suit them, the foundation said.
Later yesterday, Taiwan Mobile Co and Far EasTone Telecommunications said the increased earnings during the second quarter came from data transfer rather than voice services.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY LISA WANG
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