The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday asked Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) to review its rates for its 100M/100M Internet service, as it is still slightly higher than those of other Asian countries.
The commission yesterday approved the new Internet service rates proposed by the nation’s largest telecom carrier, including its asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) as well as fiber-to-the-building (FTTB) and fiber-to-the-house (FTTH) services.
Based on Chunghwa’s proposal, consumers can choose to have their Internet services upgraded to faster ones and pay the same monthly charge as they do now. The company has also dropped rates for some of its faster Internet services to motivate customers to switch to those plans.
The 100M/100M service rate was dropped by 23.54 percent, from NT$1,699 per month to NT$1,299. The service provides upload and download speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps).
Meanwhile, the rates for the firm’s 100M/40M service fell 20.01 percent, from NT$1,499 to NT$1,199 per month. The 100M/20M service rate was cut by 14.67 percent, from NT$1,288 to NT$1,099 per month.
Commission spokesperson Yu Hsiao-cheng (虞孝成) said Chung
hwa’s 100M/100M rate is still more expensive than similar services in Japan, South Korea and Singapore.
He said that, when factoring in purchasing power parity, the 100M/100M service offered by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp costs NT$1,000 per month. Korea Telecom offers the same service at NT$955. In Singapore, Internet speeds of 150Mbps cost about NT$755 per month, Yu added.
Asked why the commission approved the 100M service rates if it was dissatisfied with Chunghwa’s prices, Yu said that the company was not obligated to cap rates for FTTH or FTTB services.
“The commission also recognizes that this is a new technology and the carrier needs to make a large investment in it, so we do not regulate service rates,” Yu added.
Nevertheless, Yu said the NCC had passed a resolution following the approval of the new service rates that Chunghwa must continue examining the possibility of lowering rates for 100M/100M services and submit its new rate to the commission.
Chunghwa said the approved Internet service rates would take effect at the end of this month.
An estimated 4.5 million users are expected to benefit from the new prices.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods