The National Communications Commission (NCC) is to set up a special task force to monitor the situation when two telecom mergers take effect next month, it said yesterday.
Taiwan Star is to merge with Taiwan Mobile on Friday next week, while Asia Pacific Telecom (APT) is to merge with Far EasTone Telecommunications (FET) on Dec. 15. Taiwan Star and APT, which have 2.48 million and 1.99 million subscribers respectively, would cease to exist after the mergers.
Taiwan Star subscribers would not need to change their SIM cards for now unless they want to subscribe to other value-added services offered by Taiwan Mobile, NCC Vice Chairman Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said.
Photo: Taipei Times file
APT subscribers would have to change their SIM cards after the merger, as the telecom uses the core network built by Nokia and FET uses Ericsson’s, Wong said, adding that FET should notify APT subscribers of the need to change their SIM cards.
“The synergy produced through telecom mergers should help enhance the quality of telecom services available to customers,” Wong said. “We hope that subscribers of the two new telecom companies would notice significant differences in terms of Internet speed and telecom service coverage before the end of January, otherwise [the telecoms] will be at the receiving end of subscribers’ fury.”
The task force would monitor whether Taiwan Mobile and FET offer reasonable monthly plans and follow their own time lines for changing subscribers’ SIM cards, or whether the mergers lead to any telecom service disruptions, Wong said.
Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile and FET were in 2018 fined by the NCC for the chaos that broke out at their retail stores after they collectively offered a telecom service plan for NT$499 per month. The commission received numerous complaints about people having to wait hours to apply for the service plan.
Asked whether the commission is concerned about further chaos when subscribers collect new SIM cards at the telecoms’ stores, Wong said that the scenario is unlikely to happen.
“Given what happened in 2018, the telecoms should know by now that they need to offer subscribers multiple ways to change their SIM cards, instead of only allowing them to do so at retail stores. They need to find ways for people who have trouble leaving the house, live in remote areas or simply do not have time to change SIM cards,” Wong said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
RSS