While Minister Without Portfolio Simon Chang (張善政) recently stressed that unlimited Internet access services for mobile devices should be canceled to resolve Internet congestion problems, the Consumers’ Foundation said the unlimited access service is not the main cause of slow Internet connection speeds.
Earlier this month, Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said he agreed with Chang’s suggestion and that “it’s just a matter of time” before the services are canceled.
National Communications Commission Chairman Howard Shyr (石世豪) said the commission does not have a preferred plan, and encouraged telecommunications service providers to come up with new service plans.
However, Consumers’ Foundation chairman Mark Chang (張智剛) on Friday said that an “insufficient number of base stations is the main reason for slow connection speeds, which has nothing to do with the ‘all-you-can eat’ [unlimited] mobile Internet connection services,” and the government should not confuse the public by blaming the service.
The foundation’s deputy secretary-general, Lin Tsung-nan (林宗男), said that when people connect to the Internet on their smartphones or tablet SCs, the information is transmitted through local base stations, which operate individually without competition over bandwidth.
“For example, if the highest mobile device download speed provided by a base station is 14.4Megabits per second [MBbps,] then users may experience Internet congestion when too many people using the same base station area connect to the Internet at the same time,” he said, adding that connection speed is influenced more by the number of users simultaneously using the Internet than by how much they are consuming.
Therefore, no matter how much broadband is used by users of local base station A, it still would not affect the connection speed of users at local base station B, he added.
In addition, the foundation said that according to its consumers report in July, the average Internet connection speed in Taitung County is about 0.8MBps, which is only about a half of the average speed of 1.6MBps in Taipei, providing evidence that the government’s reasoning is flawed because while there are more Internet users in Taipei, the connection speed is still faster than in Taitung.
On the issue improving Internet speed, Lin said that more free WiFi services should be provided in department stores, wholesale centers, fast food outlets and other public spaces, to help ease congestion problems.
He added that telecommunication service providers should also improve their 3G infrastructures.
The foundation urged the government to protect the public’s right to use the Internet, rather than supplying telecommunications service providers with an excuse to cancel their unlimited services or raise Internet usage fees to repress people’s desire for high-quality Internet connection.
FAST TRACK? Chinese spouses must renounce their Chinese citizenship and pledge allegiance to Taiwan to gain citizenship, some demonstrators said Opponents and supporters of a bill that would allow Chinese spouses to obtain Taiwanese citizenship in four years instead of six staged protests near the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning. Those who oppose the bill proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) demanded that Chinese spouses be granted citizenship only after renouncing their Chinese citizenship, passing a citizenship test and pledging allegiance to Taiwan. The demonstrators, who were protesting at a side entrance to the Legislative Yuan on Jinan Road, were mostly members of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and other organizations advocating Taiwanese independence. Supporters of the bill, led
SILENT MAJORITY: Only 1 percent of Chinese rejected all options but war to annex Taiwan, while one-third viewed war as unacceptable, a university study showed Many Chinese are more concerned with developments inside their country than with seeking unification with Taiwan, al-Jazeera reported on Friday. Although China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary, 23-year-old Chinese Shao Hongtian was quoted by al-Jazeera as saying that “hostilities are not the way to bring China and Taiwan together.” “I want unification to happen peacefully,” Shao said. Al-Jazeera said it changed Shao’s name to respect his wish for anonymity. If peaceful unification is not possible, Shao said he would prefer “things to remain as they are,” adding that many of his friends feel
Taiwan has “absolute air superiority” over China in its own airspace, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Monday, amid concern over whether Taipei could defend itself against a military incursion by Beijing. Po made the remarks in response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on whether Taiwan would have partial or complete air superiority if Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes were to enter Taiwan’s airspace. Po, a retired pilot, said that the Taiwanese military has “absolute air superiority” over PLA
A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan from the US in the middle of last month was intercepted at the border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. Samples taken from a shipment of the Kirkland Signature brand of basil pesto imported by Costco contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit. Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide. The 674kg shipment of basil pesto would either be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, as is the procedure for all