Mobile phone reception inside railway tunnels is to improve soon, as more base stations being installed inside seven tunnels in Hsinchu and Miaoli counties, National Communications Commission Chairman Howard Shyr (石世豪) said yesterday.
Shyr made the statement at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, during which he briefed lawmakers on how the commission plans to address problems created by the congestion of mobile communications networks.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Su-yueh (陳素月) said that she cannot receive phone calls or send messages through messaging app Line when her train passes through a tunnel.
She said that the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) serves about 640,000 passengers daily, whereas Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) trains carry about 140,000 passengers per day. However, commuters cannot get a reliable and stable mobile communications service along the railway lines because there is no signal when trains pass through the tunnels, she said.
Shyr said that telecom carriers offering 4G services are installing more base stations, adding that the commission has issued more than 25,000 base-station licenses since the service became available last year.
Shyr said that telecom carriers can only build base stations inside the railway tunnels after being granted access to the railway line.
He said that construction of the base stations would soon begin inside the seven tunnels in the Hsinchu-Miaoli section after a public tender for the contract is concluded by the end of this month.
DPP Legislator Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) said he is concerned that 4G service quality might continue to deteriorate due to low-price strategies used by telecom carriers.
He said that the government made NT$118.65 billion (US$3.82 billion) through the auction of the spectrum for 4G service in 2013.
Despite the high bids that the telecom carriers made, they have relatively low service charges, Lee said.
He said that most of the complaints the commission receives are over the quality of mobile connections.
The number of telecom service complaints has risen from 620 cases to 729 cases since April last year, he added.
Shyr said that the commission will start testing transmission speeds of 4G services this year, with the results scheduled to be made public by the end of the year.
On the sidelines of the committee meeting yesterday, Shyr commented on Taiwan Mobile’s agreement to let Asia-Pacific Telecom use its core network, calling the deal a “roaming partnership.”
He said that data transmitted through the 4G network will only increase and it is impossible to reserve bandwidth for the 4G service.
Taiwan Mobile has experienced service disruption in its adjustment of the service system, Shyr added.
“I suggest that it [Taiwan Mobile] learns how to better manage its core system,” he said.
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