National Communications Commission (NCC) Chairman Howard Shyr (石世豪) yesterday said that the commission would release its ranking of telecommunications carriers according to the number of consumer complaints in the first quarter of the year.
Shyr made the announcement at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, held to review a proposed amendment to the Telecommunications Act (電信法) that would ban telecom carriers from building service station bases on the site of all schools up to the senior-high school level.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Chia-cheng (盧嘉辰) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) said that the commission had received 1,688 complaints involving disputes between telecoms carriers and consumers in the period between January and March this year, which accounted for more than 50 percent of the total last year.
Lee said the commission should be more active in resolving the disputes, rather than just forwarding the complaints to the relevant carrier. The public has a right to know which carrier received the largest number of complaints, he said, adding that this would motivate the carriers to improve.
Lee added that the regulations on seeking compensation from telecom carriers were too strict. Currently, consumers can only be compensated if they experience a disconnection in mobile communication service for more than two hours or for more than 12 hours for fixed network services. He said that users’ monthly service fee should be waived if their carrier fails to resume normal service within two hours.
The committee passed a resolution asking the commission to study the feasibility of demanding that land or property owned by government agencies and state-run corporations be made available for base stations. The resolution also urged the commission to monitor changes in electromagnetic waves near the base stations every season without giving notice to the carriers.
KMT Legislator Luo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) and DPP Legislator Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said that nearly all government agencies had turned down requests to have a station installed on their premises because it would upset the residents in their neighborhoods. The two legislators said that the public’s aversion to the stations is proof that the commission has failed to assure people about the safety of living near the stations.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
PEAK MONTHS: Data showed that on average 25 to 27 typhoons formed in the Pacific and South China seas annually, with about four forming per month in July and October One of three tropical depressions in the Pacific strengthened into a typhoon yesterday afternoon, while two others are expected to become typhoons by today, Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecaster Lee Ming-hsiang (李名翔) said yesterday. The outer circulation of Tropical Depression No. 20, now Typhoon Mitag, has brought light rain to Hualien, Taitung and areas in the south, Lee said, adding that as of 2pm yesterday, Mitag was moving west-northwest at 16kph, but is not expected to directly affect Taiwan. It was possible that Tropical Depression No. 21 would become a typhoon as soon as last night, he said. It was moving in a
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
A Taiwanese academic yesterday said that Chinese Ambassador to Denmark Wang Xuefeng (王雪峰) disrespected Denmark and Japan when he earlier this year allegedly asked Japan’s embassy to make Taiwan’s representatives leave an event in Copenhagen. The Danish-language Berlingske on Sunday reported the incident in an article with the headline “The emperor’s birthday ended in drama in Copenhagen: More conflict may be on the way between Denmark and China.” It said that on Feb. 26, the Japanese embassy in Denmark held an event for Japanese Emperor Naruhito’s birthday, with about 200 guests in attendance, including representatives from Taiwan. After addressing the Japanese hosts, Wang
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