Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday approved a frequency band for companies to test their 5G services and announced that operating licenses are to be issued next month.
Applications for frequency bands in the private network, which is in the 4.8 gigahertz-to-4.9 gigahertz range, opened yesterday, said Tsai Zse-hong (蔡志宏), executive secretary of the Executive Yuan’s Board of Science and Technology.
Su told a weekly Cabinet meeting that an auction for frequency bands would begin on Tuesday next week.
The National Communications Commission expects to finish issuing commercial licenses next month, which would usher in the nation’s 5G era, he said.
Unlike the commercial network, which covers the entire nation, the test network is independent and can be used to run trials of Internet-of-Things and artificial intelligence applications, drones and remote-controlled machinery, Tsai told a news conference in Taipei, adding that it could also be used as a platform to integrate “smart” technologies.
A wide range of entities, including corporate headquarters, factories, hospitals, recreational facilities, exhibition venues and stores, could apply to use the test network, he said.
The commission expects to start accepting commercial applications that were developed on the network within two or three years, he said.
Applicants would pay to use the network, with the amount to be set taking into account a flat fee and how much telecoms bid to obtain commercial 5G licenses, NCC Department of Frequency and Resources Director Chen Chung-shu (陳崇樹) said, adding that this system would keep the charges fair.
Telecoms would be allowed to apply for frequency bands in the test network by working on a contract basis with companies that have been approved to use it, Chen said.
Although the frequency bands for the test network overlap with those used by police and firefighters, private applications would only affect microwave frequencies used by the emergency services, not the communication devices they use in the field, Tsai said.
Frequency transportation would be carried out, even though most of the potential overlap between microwave bands and frequencies assigned for private use has been avoided, he said.
There are plans to broaden the microwave bands used by police and firefighters to improve their functionality, he said.
After interdepartmental discussion, it has been decided that microwave bands and test network bands can coexist, he said.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
China’s newest Type-076 amphibious assault ship has two strengths and weaknesses, wrote a Taiwanese defense expert, adding that further observations of its capabilities are warranted. Jiang Hsin-biao (江炘杓), an assistant researcher at the National Defense and Security Research, made the comments in a report recently published by the institute about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military and political development. China christened its new assault ship Sichuan in a ceremony on Dec. 27 last year at Shanghai’s Hudong Shipyard, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. “The vessel, described as the world’s largest amphibious assault ship by the [US think tank] Center for Strategic and International
RSS