Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday approved a frequency band for companies to test their 5G services and announced that operating licenses are to be issued next month.
Applications for frequency bands in the private network, which is in the 4.8 gigahertz-to-4.9 gigahertz range, opened yesterday, said Tsai Zse-hong (蔡志宏), executive secretary of the Executive Yuan’s Board of Science and Technology.
Su told a weekly Cabinet meeting that an auction for frequency bands would begin on Tuesday next week.
The National Communications Commission expects to finish issuing commercial licenses next month, which would usher in the nation’s 5G era, he said.
Unlike the commercial network, which covers the entire nation, the test network is independent and can be used to run trials of Internet-of-Things and artificial intelligence applications, drones and remote-controlled machinery, Tsai told a news conference in Taipei, adding that it could also be used as a platform to integrate “smart” technologies.
A wide range of entities, including corporate headquarters, factories, hospitals, recreational facilities, exhibition venues and stores, could apply to use the test network, he said.
The commission expects to start accepting commercial applications that were developed on the network within two or three years, he said.
Applicants would pay to use the network, with the amount to be set taking into account a flat fee and how much telecoms bid to obtain commercial 5G licenses, NCC Department of Frequency and Resources Director Chen Chung-shu (陳崇樹) said, adding that this system would keep the charges fair.
Telecoms would be allowed to apply for frequency bands in the test network by working on a contract basis with companies that have been approved to use it, Chen said.
Although the frequency bands for the test network overlap with those used by police and firefighters, private applications would only affect microwave frequencies used by the emergency services, not the communication devices they use in the field, Tsai said.
Frequency transportation would be carried out, even though most of the potential overlap between microwave bands and frequencies assigned for private use has been avoided, he said.
There are plans to broaden the microwave bands used by police and firefighters to improve their functionality, he said.
After interdepartmental discussion, it has been decided that microwave bands and test network bands can coexist, he said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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