While the nation’s three main telecoms are launching 5G service this week, Taiwan is not going to see a large-scale migration from 4G to 5G, given the scarcity of smartphone models that can support the service, National Communications Commission (NCC) officials said yesterday.
Chunghwa Telecom and Taiwan Mobile launched their 5G services on Tuesday, while Far Eastone Telecommunications (FET) is scheduled to launch its service tomorrow.
Their 5G service plans are about the same as what they offered when 4G hit the market, with some offering unlimited data plans for NT$1,399 per month.
Photo: Wu Po-wei, Taipei Times
The fees are the lowest in the world, compared with other nations where 5G service is available, NCC chief secretary Hsiao Chi-hung (蕭祈宏) said.
Only five smartphones that can support 5G service have been certified by the commission and are available on the market: three Samsung Galaxy X20 series phones, the Sony Xperia 1 II and the LG V60 ThinQ.
More 5G smartphones are expected to hit the market in the second half of this year, Hsiao said, adding that Samsung has four more 5G smartphone models that have been certified by the commission.
Samsung Taiwan announced that its Galaxy A51 and A71 smartphones, which both support 5G service, were certified by the commission yesterday and would hit the market in the second half of this month.
Sharp Taiwan is scheduled to present its Sharp Aquos R5G smartphone today.
The Nikkei Asian Review yesterday reported that Apple is trying to reduce production delays for its first 5G iPhone.
It is facing delays of four weeks to two months for its four 5G iPhone models and had previously postponed their launch until next year, the report said.
A large-scale migration from the 4G to the 5G service would not happen until new 5G iPhones are launched, NCC officials said, adding that the estimation was made based on observations from the launch of 4G services.
Many consumer apps can still be produced and accessed through the 4G system, they said.
“So far, telecoms have mainly targeted corporate customers, which would create apps requiring larger bandwidth,” they said.
The Executive Yuan has designated the frequency band between 4.8 gigahertz and 4.9 gigahertz for private firms to develop a 5G network, which would be opened for applications next year and in 2022, the commission said.
Meanwhile, an online poll by text messaging app Line on whether consumers would be motivated by the launch of 5G service to buy 5G smartphones found that more than 60 percent of respondents said they would not by a new phone to be able to access a 5G service.
About 30 percent said they would consider changing their phones, and 10 percent said they would change their phones to access a 5G service.
Line said about 34,000 of its app users cast votes in the poll.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS