The personal handy-phone system (PHS) is set to become history as First International Telecom’s (大眾電信) application to terminate the business was approved by the National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday.
The carrier has applied to stop providing PHS service on March 31, when it is scheduled to return the frequency and mobile phone numbers assigned to it by the government, commission Chief Secretary Jason Ho (何吉森) said.
“To protect the interests of the current PHS users, we have completed several complementary measures, including allowing them to carry their numbers over to new carriers under the number portability policy, and requesting that the five telecoms take over the telephone numbers assigned to First International. These measures are to be activated on April 1,” Ho said.
The five telecoms are Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile, Far Eastone Telecommunications, Asia Pacific Telecom and Taiwan Star. Chunghwa Telecom, for example, was asked to accept PHS users with mobile phone numbers in the block between 09664 and 09667, while Taiwan Mobile was assigned to take over numbers between 09660 and 09663.
Liang Wen-hsing (梁溫馨), deputy director at the commission’s telecommunications administration department, said that the PHS users can take their bills, text messages or other documents proving that they were using the numbers to the their NCC-assigned carriers first if they wish to keep their numbers when they migrate to new carriers, adding that they can start doing so on March 25.
Liang emphasized that PHS users are not obligated to accept different plans for 3G or 4G service from their assigned carriers, adding that each carrier is committed to providing one-stop service to PHS users if they want to migrate to a different carrier with their original numbers.
PHS users can call commission hotlines 0800-201-207 or (02) 2343-3607 for assistance, if there are any consumer disputes.
Founded in 1997, First International launched the PHS service in 2001, becoming the nation’s sole carrier offering such service. To attract customers, it did not impose monthly service charges and users paid only for their use of the system.
The company also said that PHS was a low-power system that generated less electromagnetic radiation than other telecommunications services, attracting many student users as well as healthcare professionals in hospitals, it said.
First International’s users peaked at 1.48 million subscribers in July 2008, but it sought to restructure its finances at the Taipei District Court in September of the same year.
The court in March 2009 allowed First International to proceed with its financial restructuring plan.
However, the restructuring failed to salvage the company. By June last year, all of its retail stores were closed. By November last year, the number of active PHS users had dwindled to about 68,900.
The company declared bankruptcy on Dec. 2 last year, after the Taipei District Court ruled to terminate the enforcement of the company’s restructuring plan.
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