The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that it would seek administrative instruction from the Executive Yuan to solve problems when licenses of second-generation (2G) telecom services expire in June 2017.
Commission data showed that the nation had approximately 1.25 million 2G service subscribers as of Nov. 25, with most of them Chunghwa Telecom customers.
NCC spokesperson Yu Hsiao-cheng (虞孝成) said the commission is aware that telecoms want to consolidate spectrums currently used to serve 2G subscribers into the “C6” block in the 1.8 Gigahertz (GHz) frequency band, which is not being used.
However, rules meant the commission would have problems allowing telecoms to do so, Yu said.
“We will see if the Executive Yuan has any instructions regarding this issue,” Yu said.
Article 94 of the Budget Act (預算法) says that limited or fixed-amount special licenses shall be sold by open auction or public invitation to tender, with the proceeds to be turned in to the national treasury.
The commission is to carefully plan the sale of the spectrums used by third-generation (3G) telecom carriers, whose licenses are to expire on Dec.31, 2018, Yu said.
“The last thing we want is to see the 3G frequency block auction drastically alter how these frequency blocks are allocated, which would force carriers to offer services using different frequency blocks than the ones they are using now and in turn inconvenience users,” Yu said. “As such, we hope that the plan would lead to minimal changes.”
Yu said the auctions of 700 Megahertz (MHz), 900MHz and 1.9GHz blocks in 2013 led to inefficient use of some of them.
In other developments, the commission said it has approved investment from Absolute Perfect Co in the Taipei-based cable operator Taipei Net, adding it has followed the Cable Television Act (有線電視法) in reviewing the case.
The Mauritius-based company was established by family of businessman Lien Tai-sheng (練台生).
Article 42 of the Cable Television Act says that programs provided by operators and affiliates shall not exceed 25 percent of the usable channels and there is no evidence that the rule has been breached, Yu said.
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