The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said the auction of the frequency bands to be used by fourth-generation (4G) service providers are scheduled to begin on Nov. 17, with starting prices set at NT$14.4 billion (US$442 million).
The commission said a block from 2,500MHz to 2,600MHz would be up auction.
The block would be divided into six bands, it added.
The commission said that telecommunication carriers that qualified for bidding are Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Taiwan Mobile Corp (台灣大哥大), Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), Asia-Pacific Telecom (APT, 亞太電信) and Taiwan Star Telecom Co Ltd (台灣之星).
Each frequency band would be sold to the highest bidder following a simultaneous multiple-round auction, it said.
This is to be the first time that such an auction has been conducted using an electronic bidding system which means people can place bids from their office, the commission said.
The commission has held simulated bidding four times in the past, it said.
The commission said that telecom carriers can acquire the bandwidths needed based on the business models they intend to pursue on a flexible basis.
However, the commission is to cap the maximum bandwidth that a carrier can buy in the auction at 70MHz to ensure fair market competition.
The commission said that it has approved the merger of APT and Ambit Microsystems Corp (國碁電子), as well as Taiwan Mobile’s investment in Ambit.
The commission rejected the application for a merger earlier this year because APT did not elaborate on details of its strategic partnership with Taiwan Mobile in its business plan.
The commission also rejected an application last month, as APT failed to provide information on investment from Taiwan Mobile, which would indirectly own 3.45 percent of APT shares through its investment in Ambit.
Commission spokesperson Yu Hsiao-cheng (虞孝成) said the new company created from the merger of APT and Ambit must submit a new business plan to the commission for approval.
The new company must account for its plan to lease network from Taiwan Mobile during the initial stages of operation, Yu said.
Taiwan Mobile must also account for its plan to allow the new company to share network while the business plan must be approved by the commission, Yu said.
Yu said that both APT and Taiwan Mobile have been fined for failing to notify the commission in advance of changes to business plans, and have been asked to address the situation within a set time frame.
The commission has the power to continue fining the operators even after the merger is approved if the two fail to address the matter by the deadline, Yu said.
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