National Communications Commission (NCC) Chairwoman Su Herng (蘇蘅) reiterated yesterday that the nation would become one telephone service area starting on Jan. 1, adding that it would not allow Chunghwa Telecom to raise the rate for local calls after its long-distance call services are canceled.
Su made the announcement at the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which was scheduled to review use of the -Communications Supervision and Management Fund.
Based on the new rate plan submitted by Chunghwa Telecom on Wednesday, users will be charged NT$1.6 every three minutes for local or long-distance calls during regular hours and NT$1 every three minutes for calls during discount hours.
Those who do not need to make long-distance calls can also choose to stick to the current plan. Customers of the current plan are charged NT$1.6 every three minutes for local calls, NT$5.7 every three minutes for long-distance calls and NT$1 every 10 minutes during discount hours.
Chunghwa Telecom expects to lose NT$2.8 billion (US$92.73 million) in revenues because of the policy, the commission said.
While lawmakers serving on the committee applauded the NCC for making the policy possible, they accused the commission of being ineffective when asking Chunghwa Telecom to return money to customers that it earned by overcharging customers for its ADSL service.
The nation’s largest telecoms carrier was fined NT$300,000 for violating Article 62 of the Telecommunications Act (電信法) by bundling ADSL and home phone services and forcing customers to accept such deals. Chunghwa Telecom also lost the case at the Supreme Administrative Court, which ruled the company must compensate customers for that unreasonable requirement.
Chen Kuo-lung (陳國龍), director of the NCC’s business management department, said the company had originally insisted that it would not reimburse customers if they had made phone calls, even if they had made only one call. However, the commission rejected that -position, demanding that Chunghwa -Telecom make reimbursements based on how many phone calls users actually made.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Luo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) said that customers should receive full refunds of their monthly rental fees for the fixed phone service if their telephone charges did not exceed the rental fees.
“The company should not have bundled the two services in the first place. What they gained was illegal profits,” she said. “Not only should you fine it [Chunghwa Telecom] until it starts refunding customers, but also ask it to pay the complete sum along with the interest accrued since 2007.”
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