The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday approved Chunghwa Telecom’s proposal to lower the marked prices of four high-speed fixed network services, saying that the price adjustment is expected to motivate more broadband service subscribers to migrate to high-speed Internet.
The nation’s largest telecom is to lower the price of its Internet service with download and upload speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (100Mbps/100Mbps) from NT$1,270 (US$41.35) per month to NT$1,149, NCC Vice Chairman and spokesman Wong Po-tsung (翁伯宗) told a weekly news conference.
The monthly prices of its 300Mbps/100Mbps and 500Mbps/250Mbps services would also drop from NT$1,399 and NT$1,799 to NT$1,199 and NT$1,299 respectively, Wong said.
Meanwhile, the price of the telecom’s Internet service offering download speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second and upload speeds of up to 600Mbps would drop from NT$2,399 per month to NT$1,899, he said.
The drop in the price of the 500Mbps/250Mbps service amounts to 27.7 percent, the largest price reduction among the four high-speed Internet services, he said.
The telecom has also voluntarily upgraded the maximum download speed to 150Mbps for the 300Mbps/100Mbps service, he added.
About 46,000 subscribers are expected to benefit from the price reduction, Wong said, adding that their total savings could reach NT$188 million per year.
The telecom is next month expected to offer promotional prices for the services, which would motivate more broadband service users to migrate to high-speed Internet, Wong said.
Subscribers to bundled contracts might be subject to different rates and are advised to review the terms of their contracts, he said.
The majority, or 1.18 million, of fixed network service users subscribe to the 100Mbps/40Mbps service, he said.
“We expect the competition between Chunghwa Telecom and cable system operators who offer broadband services to intensify in the next three or six months, as cable systems are applying to upgrade the broadband services available to their subscribers,” he added.
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