Price cuts on telecom services offered by Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) yesterday were approved by the National Communications Commission (NCC).
NCC spokesperson Yu Hsiao-cheng (虞孝成) said the nation’s largest telecom carrier offered the price cuts in accordance with the change in the nation’s weekly working hours, from 84 hours biweekly to 40 hours weekly.
Yu said the company proposed to make 8am to 12pm on Saturdays a reduced-rate period.
Yu said the price cuts also apply to landlines, 2G and 3G services.
With the cuts, the commission said 11.6 million subscribers to local-call services would collectively save an estimated NT$189 million (US$5.59 million) per year, while 60,000 people accessing public payphones would save about NT$1.45 million per year.
A total of 4.95 million subscribers to long-distance call services would save about NT$17.10 million per year, while 1.1 million international callers would see their costs reduced by a combined NT$14 million per year, it said.
In addition, 75,000 Chunghwa Telecom 2G monthly service subscribers and 120,000 2G prepaid-card users are expected to save NT$2.42 million and NT$2.65 million per year respectively, the commission said adding that 4.74 million 3G monthly service subscribers and 1.15 million 3G prepaid-card users could save NT$10.13 million and NT$7.75 million respectively.
Though the price cuts were approved yesterday, Yu said that the cuts would be retroactive to Jan. 1.
In other developments, the commission approved two new 3G service plans offered by Taiwan Mobile for physically disabled customers.
The first plan offers disability card holders who pay a monthly fee of NT$200 or more for voice calls and at least NT$100 for data use.
Apart from getting 30 minutes of video calls free of charge, they can also send 300 free intranet text messages and 100 free extranet text messages, the commission said.
When using mobile devices to access the Internet, the plan offers free 1 gigabyte of free data.
The second plan targets people with hearing, speech and articulation disabilities, the NCC said. It costs NT$589 per month and offers unlimited Internet transmission.
Previously, the service capped the transmission volume at 5 gigabytes.
People can start applying for the service plans at the end of the month, the commission said.
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