More than 3 million Chunghwa Telecom fiber-to-the-X Internet (FTTX) service subscribers’ monthly fees are to be reduced after the National Communications Commission adjusted the coefficient used to cap the fee.
The commission said 3.38 million subscribers are to benefit from the new pricing scheme, with savings of between NT$16 and NT$26 per month.
Chunghwa’s revenue is forecast to drop by NT$892 million (US$29.2 million) annually as a result.
Chunghwa is also to reduce its private peering fee with other Internet service providers by 46 percent from NT$314 per megabits per second (Mbps) to NT$170 per Mbps, the commission said.
This would mark the largest percentage decrease in private peering fees by Chunghwa in the past 10 years, the commission said.
Commission data showed that the private peering fee set by Chunghwa has been gradually reduced from NT$7,500 per Mbps in 2006 to NT$1,480 in 2009, NT$600 in 2012 and NT$314 this year.
Commission spokesman Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) called the decrease a “historical breakthrough” that was made possible by the joint effort of the commission and Chunghwa chairman Cheng Yu (鄭優).
Rather than the coefficient set by the commission, Wong said that Chunghwa would continue adjusting its private peering fee by consulting data for the Asia-Pacific region released by Washington-based telecommunication market research and consulting firm Telegeography, which sets fees in the Asia-Pacific region at US$5.5 per Mbps.
Won said the decrease in fees would help reduce Internet service providers’ costs and, consequently, their retail service price.
As the peering fee becomes cheaper, it would motivate Internet service providers to acquire more bandwidth, resulting in faster Internet access speeds, he added.
“We believe that Taiwan’s international ranking for Internet service speed would rise with a lower private peering fee. The move would increase the bandwidth access rate and facilitate the development of digital convergence,” he said.
Chunghwa also promised to give smaller Internet service providers and start-up firms at the Taiwan Internet Exchange (TWIX) 100Mbps of free public peering bandwidth to support their innovation and guarantee their access to bandwidth.
The new pricing scheme is to take effect retroactively from April 1, the commission said.
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