The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that it does not rule out inspecting the data centers of three major telecoms to ascertain that subscribers to a NT$499 per month unlimited data plan do not have slower Internet connections than those who pay more.
Although the commission had convened to review the qualifications of three commissioner nominees, the meeting focused on the uproar caused by low-cost data plans offered by the nation’s three large telecoms earlier this month, particularly Chunghwa Telecom.
Lawmakers have said that people who subscribed to the NT$499 plan — the most popular service — might have slower Internet connections than those who pay more.
They were also concerned that the increase in subscribers might slow down Chunghwa Telecom’s network.
NCC spokesperson Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said that the three telecoms have informed the commission about their special sales plans for Mother’s Day, adding that it was obvious that Chunghwa Telecom had executed the plan poorly.
Subscribers could not access the company’s customer service hotline as it was always busy, and people who wanted to subscribe to the low-cost plan had to endure long wait times, Wong said.
All three companies have briefed the NCC about how they carried out the plans, Wong said, adding that the commission would tomorrow decide on how to punish the companies.
Between Thursday and Saturday last week, the commission measured the Internet connection speed of Chunghwa Telecom’s services in Taipei, New Taipei City and Kaohsiung, Wong said.
The average download speed was 65 megabits per second (Mbps), which was slightly better than last year’s 60Mbps, Wong said, adding that the commission would continue to monitor the service quality and regularly disclose the results of the measurement.
Chunghwa Telecom has stated in the contract of the NT$499 plan that it would not limit the data transmission volume or slow down the transmission speed, Wong said.
“Our initial investigation showed that the company has so far abided by the terms of the contract. We do not exclude the possibility of randomly inspecting its data center to ensure that all service subscribers are treated equally,” he said.
Wong last week said that Chunghwa Telecom is estimated to have handled about 1 million applications during the seven-day Mother’s Day campaign, including those filed by the company’s existing subscribers, subscribers migrating from other carriers and new subscribers, which amounted to about one-eighth of the company’s total mobile service subscribers.
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