The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday approved mergers between Taiwan Mobile and Taiwan Star, and between Far EasTone Telecommunications and Asia Pacific Telecom (APT) after a nearly one-year review, provided Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone dispose of excess bandwidth acquired through the mergers by the end of June next year.
The mergers still have to be approved by the Fair Trade Commission, the NCC said.
Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone must also complete administrative procedures at the Ministry of Digital Affairs, the Securities and Futures Bureau and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, it added.
Following its merger with Taiwan Star, Taiwan Mobile would own 60 megahertz (MHz) of bandwidth at frequency bands below 1 gigahertz (GHz), which exceeds one-third — or 50MHz — of the total auctioned spectrum of 150MHz.
Regulations require the telecom to dispose of the extra 10MHz of bandwidth.
Following its merger with APT, Far EasTone would accumulate excess bandwidth of 13MHz at frequency bands below 3GHz, excess of 3MHz between the 3GHz and 6GHz bands, and excess of 160MHz at bands above 24GHz, the NCC said.
Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone can voluntarily return the excess bandwidth to the government, or transfer it to or exchange it with telecoms that are not its subsidiaries, associates and business partners, the commission said.
Telecoms that fail to dispose of excess bandwidth and use it illegally may fined between NT$500,000 and NT$5 million (US$16,484 to US$164,837), the NCC said.
Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone have agreed to the other conditions set by the commission for the mergers, NCC Deputy Chairman Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said.
By 2027, the two telecoms must raise their 4G coverage rate to 99 percent and 5G coverage rate to 98 percent, Wong said, adding that their 5G coverage rate in rural areas must be raised to 95 percent.
Both are committed to spending a total of NT$60 billion over the next four years to build network infrastructure using the increased bandwidth, he said.
Far EasTone would receive 2.07 million APT service subscribers through the merger, while Taiwan Mobile would receive 2.69 million Taiwan Star service subscribers, Wong said.
“Far EasTone and Taiwan Mobile have pledged that existing APT and Taiwan Star subscribers can continue accessing telecom services based on contracts they signed with their respective carriers until Dec. 31 next year. Changing SIM cards will not be necessary,” Wong said.
“Taiwan Star in 2019 offered some customers unlimited 4G services for only NT$199 per month, which is valid throughout their lives. They will continue to access the 4G services at the low monthly fee until the 4G license expires in 2033,” he said.
Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone must offer services to Taiwan Star and APT subscribers indiscriminately, Wong said.
“They must continue providing diverse service plans to subscribers, particularly users who are economically disadvantaged, physically challenged or from medium to low-income families,” he said.
The two telecoms must strive to minimize the digital divide by installing more base stations in rural areas, Wong said.
“We also hope that Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone can be more transparent in terms of their median sales prices and pricing strategies to help draw more service providers into the market,” he said. “They should expand the vertical applications of 5G by using the technology to build private networks for corporations.”
The two telecoms are committed to saving a total of 1.6 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually following the mergers, and spending NT$3.2 billion on digital inclusion projects over the next four years, Wong said.
Taiwan Mobile said that the commission’s ruling is “regrettable,” as it cannot possibly integrate networks with Taiwan Star in 18 months.
“This shows that current regulations cannot address challenges in the new era after the mergers of telecoms. We will let our board of directors decide what to do next,” the telecom said.
Far EasTone thanked NCC commissioners for approving its merger with APT.
“We respect the NCC’s ruling, and will submit an application for a merger with the Fair Trade Commission,” Far EasTone said.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not