The National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday it opposed the National Freeway Bureau’s plan to use bandwidth reserved for low-power devices to administer the high-power freeway e-Tag system.
“We fully support the national transportation project,” NCC spokesperson Chen Jeng-chang (陳正倉) said. “But we need to consider all the problems that could be caused by the launch of such a system.”
Chen said the commission had decided to continue its discussion on the e-Tag system at a later date, adding that the bureau had been asked to provide additional information to allay the concerns that the commission still has about the e-Tag system.
NCC commissioners have discussed the case before, but remain reluctant to grant the bureau a license to use the bandwidth it applied for, because of concerns that the e-Tag system could interfere with fourth-generation (4G) mobile phone systems in the future because of an inadequate buffer zone between the two systems.
Yesterday’s decision would further delay the national introduction of the e-Tag system, which was originally scheduled to begin at the end of this month.
Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co, the contractor for the e-Tag system, is under pressure to raise the average rate of use of the freeway electronic toll collection system to 60 percent by June.
The commission’s decision could cause the contractor to miss the deadline stated in its contract, which would result in a fine of NT$500,000 a day for breaching the terms of the contract.
In response, the bureau said it had applied to administer the e-Tag system, which utilizes radio frequency identification technology, between 922MHz and 926MHz, but that it would only use the bandwidth between 922.75MHz and 924.24MHz. The bandwidth reserved for 4G services is above 930MHz. It should not interfere with the e-Tag system, the bureau added.
The bureau has offered several solutions intended to sway the opinion of commission members, including moving toll-collecting gantries, installing base stations for 4G services on the gantries and reducing the power of the e-Tag system.
However, the commission remains concerned that the bureau has applied to run the high-power e-Tag system on bandwidth designated for low-power use.
“If there is any interference no one will bid for the bandwidth, which would be a waste of the nation’s resources,” Chen said.
“It [the bureau] needs to present statistics and reports from authoritative research institutes to prove that there will be no interference, otherwise, we [the NCC] will face the wrath of 6 million motorists,” he added.
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