The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that it is investigating whether Asia-Pacific Telecom has violated regulations regarding network roaming.
The investigation was launched after the commission received complaints from three other 4G telecoms — Chunghwa Telecom, Far Eastone Telecommunications and Taiwan Star.
The operators said that Asia-Pacific Telecom had signed an agreement with Taiwan Mobile, another 4G service operator, that allows the former to continue servicing its customers via the network of the latter in out-of-service areas.
They said that such a roaming deal is not a permissible practice, according to government regulations.
Liang Wen-hsing (梁溫馨), acting deputy director at the commission’s telecommunications administration department, said it is still clarifying some of the details of the case to determine which regulations apply.
He added that the commission must also consider if the actual practice of these two companies meets the definition for roaming and if Asia-Pacific Telecom has fulfilled its commitments as stated in its operational plan.
However, a source from one of the complainant 4G telecoms told the Taipei Times that they conducted tests using Asia-Pacific Telecom SIM cards and found that users can still connect to the company’s network on their mobile phones under the automatic network selection setting.
Should users turn off the automatic setting and manually choose the network, they cannot access the Asia-Pacific Telecom network when it shows up on the list.
“This shows that the Asia-Pacific Telecom data transmission has been taking place in the networks built by Taiwan Mobile, not the ones they built themselves,” the source said, adding that they also found that the network code on the SIM card belongs to Taiwan Mobile.
Taiwan Star Telecom Corp president Cliff Lai (賴弦五) last week criticized the Asia-Pacific Telecom/Taiwan Mobile alliance, saying that it is a direct challenge to the NCC.
He added that the telecommunication industry is highly regulated and that forging a roaming alliance should be prohibited if it is not listed as a permissible practice.
He also questioned if Asia-Pacific Telecom would continue building service base stations following an investment from Hon Hai/Foxconn Technology Group.
“Both Chunghwa Telecom and Asia-Pacific Telecom have shares owned by the government. The former has been working to build as many base stations as possible, whereas the latter keeps forming roaming partnerships with others — is that what the government wants?” Lai asked. “And if you were a customer of Taiwan Mobile, would you still be glad to know that customers of Asia-Pacific Telecom can share the use of the same network you are using — with a way lower monthly service rate?”
Asia-Pacific Telecom has formed several partnership deals with Taiwan Mobile since Hon Hai became the company’s largest shareholder.
Taiwan Mobile, on the other hand, holds a 14.9 percent stake in Hon Hai Group subsidiary Ambit Corp, an investment of NT$2.98 billion.
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
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
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
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
RSS