Lawmakers on the legislature’s Transportation Committee accused the nation’s largest telecoms operator of dragging its feet in executing a plan to gradually phase out long-distance phone services and turn the nation into one fixed-line service area.
The committee passed a resolution in January asking Chunghwa Telecom to turn the outlying island of Matsu and Taipei into a single service area starting on April 1, as well as integrating the outlying islands of Kinmen, Penghu and Wuciou with the service areas in Greater Kaohsiung, Greater Tainan and Greater Taichung respectively.
ONE SERVICE AREA
It asked Chunghwa to turn the nation into one fixed-line service area and end long-distance calls within the country by the end of the year.
Chunghwa Telecom chairman Lu Shyue-ching (呂學錦) was scheduled to brief lawmakers yesterday on the company’s plan to support government disaster-relief efforts, but he was mostly grilled by legislators about the firm’s slow progress in carrying out plans to phase out long-distance phone services.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuo Jung-chung (郭榮宗) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) said that as Taiwan covers a small geographical area, there was no need to charge domestic long-distance fees.
While the US is 268 times larger than Taiwan, Taiwan charges between NT$1.50 and NT$2.10 per minute for long-distance calls, while US operators only charge NT$3.40, Kuo said.
Lo said that Chunghwa made NT$222.4 billion (US$7.56 billion) in revenue and NT$47.6 billion in net profit last year. While the company was privatized in 2005, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications still holds a 35 percent stake in it
“You are supposed to safeguard the interests of consumers, not make money for foreign and corporate investors,” she said.
Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) said he would ask Chunghwa to quickly submit a new rate proposal before the end of the year when the nation is slated to become one large service area.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
Taiwan’s armed forces have established response protocols for a wide range of sudden contingencies, including the “Wan Chun Plan” to protect the head of state, the Ministry of Defense (MND) said today. After US President Donald Trump on Saturday launched a series of airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, concerns have been raised as to whether China would launch a similar “decapitation strike” on Taiwan. The armed forces regularly coordinate with relevant agencies and practice drills to ensure preparedness for a wide range of scenarios, Vice Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) told reporters before a
RSS