The government is to auction off more frequency bands for 4G telecom service, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday, adding that an auction for the bands is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.
This would be the third auction for 4G service providers; the others were held in 2014 and 2015.
The 2014 auction generated the most money — NT$118.65 billion (US$3.84 billion at the current exchange rate), about three times higher than the auction’s floor price.
The commission said there would be six frequency bands up for auction this time and bandwidth 4G service providers could bid for would be 150MHz in total.
Two of the bands, 1,920MHz to 1,975MHz and 2,110MHz to 2,165MHz are currently used for 3G service, but all 3G licenses are set to expire by the end of next year.
NCC spokesperson Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said this year’s auction would be different from earlier ones in that the carriers would be asked to build broadband networks in remote areas and detail in their business plans how they would meet that goal.
The requirement was added after consultations with the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and is aimed at helping bridge the digital gap between urban and rural areas, he said.
Taiwan would have a total of 610MHz of bandwidth dedicated to mobile broadband service after the auction is completed, he said.
The frequency bands to be sold would help raise Internet service processing speeds, and help develop applications ranging from offering remote care to the elderly to the mobile payment, he said.
Although 4G carriers have spent huge amounts of money acquiring bandwidths, Wong said a heated price war among them could have a negative impact on the industry.
Chunghwa Telecom on March 3 announced it would offered a 4G service with an unlimited data plan, but limited minutes for voice service for NT$499 month.
“A low price strategy may be the result of the market mechanism and may benefit consumers in general, but it will not be beneficial to the long-term development of the industry,” Wong said.
“Based on other countries’ experience, carriers only engage in price wars when they launch a new service... Given that almost all carriers are seeing a decline of average revenue per user, a low-price strategy would limit ... infrastructure and affect the development of the fifth-generation service,” he said.
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