Taiwan Star must continue to maintain its base stations and ensure that consumers’ rights are protected, even though it is soon to be merged with Taiwan Mobile, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday.
Taiwan Star’s subscribers in Taipei, New Taipei City and Keelung did not have access to telecom services for several hours on Tuesday afternoon due to a power outage in the company’s telecommunications room in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖).
NCC Deputy Chairman and spokesman Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) confirmed that the commission had received 106 complaints from Taiwan Star subscribers as of yesterday afternoon.
“The company’s telecom services were unavailable because of a disruption in the power supply from Taiwan Power Co in the area,” Wong said. “The power generator in the telecommunications room was activated immediately after the power supply stopped at 11:30am, which helped sustain operations in the telecommunications room for two more hours.”
The commission received the emergency report from Taiwan Star at about 1:49pm, which met with the relevant regulations, he said.
Even after Taipower resumed the supply of power, electricity in the telecommunications room remained unstable, which eventually burned out the switchboard, Wong said, adding that telecom services were not restored quickly, as the base stations remained powerless.
The base stations were not reactivated until 3:40pm, with some subscribers not getting services back again until 5pm to 6pm, Wong said.
Based on the telecom’s standard contract with subscribers, a subscriber can get a 5 percent discount on monthly fees if their telecom service is suspended for two to four hours. An 8 percent discount applies if the service is suspended for four to eight hours.
The company told the commission that it would compensate subscribers based on the terms of the standard contract, Wong said, adding that its control center should have information on how different subscribers were affected by the disruption of services.
“We have reminded the telecom that it has a social responsibility and must ensure that consumers’ interests are protected,” he said.
As Taiwan Mobile has applied to merge with Taiwan Star, but the plan has yet to be approved by the commission, Taiwan Star must continue to fulfill its contract with subscribers, Wong said.
“The company cannot neglect the maintenance of base stations or begin removing some of them because it will soon merge with Taiwan Mobile,” he said. “We have noticed that the company has begun to advertise the merger to consumers, even though it has yet to be approved. We will study if that is legal.”
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