Chunghwa Telecom Co (CHT, 中華電信) yesterday became the nation’s first telecom to secure a 5G license after the National Communications Commission approved its application.
The license allows the nation’s largest telecom to build the new system using the 3.5 gigahertz (GHz) and 28GHz frequency bands.
CHT has already built more than 250 cell sites, the required minimum to launch a 5G service, NCC spokesman Hsiao Chi-hung (蕭祈宏) said, adding that the commission reviewed the company’s business plan and information security plan, and inspected its facilities before issuing the license.
According to the Regulations for Administration of Mobile Broadband Businesses (行動寬頻業務管理規則), the telecom should launch a 5G service within six months of receiving the license.
“It can launch the service whenever it is ready,” Hsiao said.
CHT chairman Sheih Chi-mau (謝繼茂) told a shareholders’ meeting last week that the telecom could launch its 5G service on July 1.
Asked about CHT’s proposed monthly fees for its 5G service, the commission said it would be given such information after the telecom launches the service.
The company built a majority of its cell sites using the 3.5GHz frequency band, as the facilities developed for this frequency band were already available for use, the commission said.
The telecom’s cell sites are mainly located in the six special municipalities — Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung — it said.
Hsiao said that the NCC has also completed inspections of 5G facilities built by Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), adding that it could secure a 5G license at the weekly commissioners’ meeting next week.
Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) and Taiwan Star Telecom Co (台灣之星) are still building the base stations needed to launch a 5G service and have not had their facilities inspected by the NCC, he said.
The commission has yet to approve Asia Pacific Telecom Co’s (亞太電信) business plan, as it changed its plan to focus on the construction of a 5G system using the 28GHz frequency band, he added.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS