New Century InfoComm Tech Co was fined NT$3 million (US$99,700) for using telecommunication networks in a manner that generated a national security concern, the National Communications Commission said on Wednesday.
The fixed network firm is a subsidiary of Far Eastern Group and began operations in 2001.
A commission spokesperson, Yu Hsiao-cheng (虞孝成), said the company was asked to address the situation within two months, adding that the commission could revoke its operating licenses if it refuses to do so.
“They [the company] argued that it has a lot of corporate customers and it takes time to replace the equipment,” Yu said.
“However, the company was still using the equipment that is banned by the National Security Bureau. We then ruled to fine the company,” he said.
According to the agency, the company had previously been fined NT$1.2 million and NT$600,000 for two violations involving use of banned equipment. The penalties went up to NT$1.8 million and NT$1.2 million this time because the company had failed to address the situation.
Sources within the commission said the company used equipment produced by Chinese manufacturers.
Several countries have restricted the sale of Chinese telecommunication products because of national security issues.
Meanwhile, the commission unveiled a testing report on mobile communication service speeds nationwide.
Far EasTone Telecommunications (FET) was ranked first in terms of upload speed, with upload rates ranging between 1.21 megabits per second (Mbps) and 1.69Mbps.
For downloads speed, FET was ranked first in nine counties. Chunghwa Telecom and Taiwan Mobile were ranked first in five and four other counties respectively.
The project was conducted by the Telecom Technology Center from August to October last year and drew voluntary participation from 2,977 consumers. More than 2.5 million valid samples were analyzed in the project.
The average download speed for the nation was 4.44Mbps, an improvement of 12.4 percent on results from a similar project last year.
The average upload speed was 1.13Mbps, which was an improvement of 14.1 percent.
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