The National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday it would schedule another meeting next week to resolve an Internet Protocol (IP) peering fees dispute between Chunghwa Telecom (CHT, 中華電信) and Taiwan Fixed Network (TFN, 台灣固網), two of the nation’s largest telecom operators.
The companies met at the NCC on Tuesday to solve the dispute. CHT proposed changes to its service charges, but the NCC did not accept the proposal.
“It [CHT] presented us with a complicated formula explaining the way they set prices, but we considered the new price to be not much different from the old one,” said Lee Ming-chung (李明忠), an NCC division chief.
Lee said the commission believed CHT could drop its prices further as its infrastructrure costs had already been recouped.
Peering refers to the connection between two separate Internet networks that allows customers to exchange traffic. Since a majority of overseas Web sites can only be accessed via CHT’s undersea cables, other fixed network service providers must use CHT’s peering service.
The dispute over the IP peering fee broke out last week when CHT decided to restrict the bandwidth used for the 2G peering service with TFN last Wednesday because the latter had not paid its fees this year.
TFN said it had been overcharged by CHT and asked to renegotiate a new peering fee.
After learning of the dispute, the NCC dispatched officials to both CHT and TFN to monitor the traffic flow between the two networks. CHT resumed its prior service agreement with TFN the next day under the NCC’s orders.
CHT charges NT$1,500 per megabyte if the bandwidth is smaller than 500 megabytes per second and NT$3,000 per megabyte if it is higher. The NCC said this was unreasonable and that fees for larger amounts should be discounted.
Meanwhile, CHT set six criteria for granting TFN discounts on peering fees, one of them being that TFN IP addresses should reach one-third the number of CHT’s. The NCC, however, believed that the specific criteria could not be met by TFN or any other service provider.
The incident last week caused the NCC to launch an investigation into whether CHT has abused its status as the market leader and whether TFN has infringed its customers’ interests.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS