The nation is to hold its first auction for the spectrum reserved for 5G services on Tuesday next week, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday, adding that a new mechanism would be used to accelerate the bidding process.
The nation’s five major telecoms — Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile, Far Eastern Telecommunications, Asia-Pacific Telecom and Taiwan Star — have all qualified to participate in the auction, the commission said.
The commission has set the floor price at NT$30 billion (US$983.35 million), while the Executive Yuan has set a goal to receive NT$40 billion from the auction.
Photo: Lee Hsin-fang, Taipei Times
Lawmakers have forecast that the auction could generate at least NT$44 billion for the government.
The telecoms have expressed concern that that the longer the auction lasts, the higher the bids they would have to place, which would in turn would increase the costs of 5G services while they are still trying to offset the costs of 4G services.
Commission acting spokesman Hsiao Chi-hung (蕭祈宏) said that there is no way of forecasting how long the auction would last and whether the NT$44 billion goal could be reached.
Industry experts have estimated that the auction would last two weeks and generate about NT$40 billion.
Telecoms are to place a total of 10 bids every day in 20-minute intervals and they would indicate the spectrum width they require in each round, the commission said, adding that the firms would enter the next round of bidding when the amount of spectrum requested exceeds or equals the total amount of spectrum available.
The minimum bid increase would be set at 1.03 times the previous bid, it said.
The process is to continue until no bidders indicate their needs for additional spectrum in two consecutive rounds, it added.
The commission said that it has also created a mechanism to expedite the auction — the 51st and 101st bids are not allowed to request more spectrum than in the 50th and 100th bids respectively.
For example, if a firm’s 50th bid was for three frequency blocks in the 3.5 Gigahertz (GHz) band, the next bid could request no more than those three blocks.
This mechanism would motivate telecoms to focus on the spectrum they need and bid quickly, the commission said.
Meanwhile, the Executive Yuan yesterday said that it plans to reserve the frequency band between 4.8GHz and 4.9GHz for private corporations to conduct experiments of 5G applications, adding that fees would be charged for using the spectrum.
The plan is to be discussed at the weekly Cabinet meeting today, Minister Without Portfolio Wu Tsung-tsong (吳政忠) said, adding that private business owners could start filing applications once the plan has been approved.
Generally, it would take them one to two years to test the technology and decide whether it could translate into a viable business model, Wu said.
The government would release about 200MHz near the 3.5GHz frequency band for companies that have succeeded in developing a viable 5G commercial model, Wu added.
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 lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
RSS