The nation’ s major telecom operators yesterday installed additional wireless 4G capacity in some urban areas in a bid to cope with the expected spike in data traffic for New Year’s Eve celebrations.
“Data usage was expected to double from last year as consumers increasingly opt to send video greetings,” Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) said in a statement.
To boost mobile Internet coverage, the nation’s largest telecom operator dispatched 170 mobile base station vans to the Taipei City Government Building, Taichung Stadium, E-Da Theme Park (義大世界) in Kaohsiung and other popular venues for the celebrations.
The company was also to deploy small cellular base stations and allocate more Wi-Fi capacity to deal with an increase in download demand, while about 300 Chunghwa engineers were to work in crowded areas to prevent Internet traffic congestion.
Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), the nation’s second-largest telecom company, expected data traffic on New Year’s Eve to surge 2.5 times from last year, adding that data traffic during the Christmas period surged 1.5 times compared with 2014.
The company planned to add 200 mobile base stations and more Wi-Fi hotspots to existing networks, as well as 200 engineers to cope with a surge in data usage, while Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) planned to add 138 mobile base stations and 220 staff to crowded areas to ensure good communications on its network.
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