Chunghwa Telecom would freeze fixed prices for retail telecom services, despite inflation, as access to broadband is a fundamental human right, the firm said yesterday.
The National Communications Commission (NCC) earlier in the day approved telecom tariff price adjustment coefficients for fixed services this year and next year.
The coefficients for retail and wholesale telecom services were set at 2.15 percent and 7.48 percent respectively.
Photo: Wang Yi-hung, Taipei Times
The percentages — by which telecoms adjust retail and wholesale prices — are determined by subtracting the coefficients from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics’ Consumer Price Index (CPI), which was 2.95 percent last year.
Based on the formula, telecoms are allowed to raise retail prices for broadband Internet services with download speed between 120 megabits per second (Mbps) and 300Mbps by 0.8 percent until March 31 next year, the commission said.
NCC Vice Chairman and spokesman Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said that Chunghwa Telecom is the only telecom subject to the price adjustment rules, as it is the only significant market player in the fixed telecom service market.
“In the past, the coefficients were always larger than CPI, which meant that Chunghwa Telecom had to decrease its retail and wholesale prices each year. This would be the first time it is allowed to raise prices,” Wong said.
Asked whether the firm would increase its prices, Wong said that the NCC would not know until it sees proposed price adjustments, which it must approve.
“However, we have reminded companies that they need to take into account consumer interest,” he said.
Industry observers had said that the nation’s largest telecom was unlikely to raise retail prices even though it is entitled to do so due to intensified competition in the broadband service market from cable service operators.
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