The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday assigned new mobile telephone numbers to be used by three of the nation’s fourth-generation (4G) telecom service providers, adding that consumers can continue to use their current phone numbers when they switch to the 4G service.
NCC spokesperson Yu Hsiao-cheng (虞孝成) said that the commission decided to appropriate 1 million new mobile phone numbers each to Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile and Far Eastone Telecommunications for the soon-to-be-launched 4G service.
New 4G-service subscribers of Chunghwa Telecom would be given numbers beginning with 0905.
Those subscribing to Taiwan Mobile and Far Eastone Telecommunications would be given numbers beginning with 0909 and 0903 respectively.
All three operators were granted 4G licenses at the end of last month and are scheduled to start providing the service on July 1.
Wu Ming-ren (吳銘仁), a specialist at the commission’s resources and technologies department, said subscribers of second-generation (2G) or third-generation (3G) services can still keep the numbers they have now if they choose to switch to the 4G service.
Meanwhile, the commission also amended the Regulations Governing Number Portability (號碼可攜服務管理辦法) and the Regulations Governing Telecommunications Numbers (電信號碼管理辦法) to include 4G service in the commission’s policy.
The amendment also allowed the 2G service operators to collectively move their 2G subscribers to an upgraded service after the 2G license expires in June 2017.
After the amendment, the Regulations Governing Number Portability allow the customers to switch among different telecom carriers without having to change their mobile phone numbers, whereas the Regulations Governing Telecommunications Numbers would apply when the customers wish to change services offered by the same carrier, the commission said.
The nation still has about 3 million 2G service users, most of them Chunghwa Telecom customers.
Yu said that 2G operators must return their licenses to the commission after their licenses expire, adding that they also need to follow a set of due procedures when they terminate the 2G service.
“Based on the regulations governing 4G businesses, telecom carriers can reserve part of the spectrum they had acquired to offer 2G services after 2017,” Yu said. “If they do not wish to offer 2G services after 2017, they are legally able to terminate the service.”
The commission said that telecom carriers must not prevent anyone from subscribing to the 2G service as long as their license is valid, but they must inform subscribers about the possible termination of 2G service after 2017 when signing the service contract.
However, telecom carriers have yet to decide whether they will continue offering 2G services after the licenses expire.
“We still need to see if the government is willing to place more spectrums up for auction in the years to come, such as the one in the band of 2.6GHz,” a telecom company representative said on condition of anonymity.
“Why would we want to use the spectrums to offer a mobile telecommunication service running only 20 megabits per second [Mbps], when our competitor can offer 30Mbps service instead?” the representative said.
The commission added that Taiwan Star (台灣之星), another company that won the bid for part of the 4G spectrum, would soon be given an official license.
As of yesterday, the commission is still evaluating its facilities.
Taiwan Star yesterday proposed to merge with Asia Pacific Telecom to enhance its competitiveness.
The commission said it would first have to determine if whether such a merger would allow Taiwan Star to exceed the maximum radio spectrums it can acquire as stated in the bidding rules.
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