There was no need to continue court-run mediation with Taiwan Mobile over fines it has accumulated for not returning excess bandwidth it obtained through a merger with Taiwan Star, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday, adding that the firm would face more fines if it uses the bandwidth to offer services.
The nation’s three telecoms are permitted no more than 50 megahertz (MHz) of bandwidth below 1GHz, where radio waves have greater penetration and diffraction capabilities, enabling broader 5G coverage.
However, Taiwan Mobile obtained 60MHz in the bandwidth due to its merger with Taiwan Star, a deal that the commission approved last year on the condition that Taiwan Mobile returned 10MHz to the government, or sold or transferred it to another telecom by June 30.
Photo: Tsai Ssu-pei, Taipei Times
Taiwan Mobile challenged the NCC ruling at the High Court last year and twice requested an extension to use all of its bandwidth, with both being denied by the NCC.
The NCC has fined Taiwan Mobile three times since the deadline passed for using the excess bandwidth to offer services, with fines of NT$3 million (US$93,932) for each instance. The company was also ordered to pay a single default surcharge of NT$600,000 for missing the payment deadline twice.
As of yesterday, the company had paid NT$3 million in fines and NT$300,000 toward the default surcharge, the commission said.
Taiwan Mobile sought to settle the dispute with the NCC through mediation.
On Tuesday, it said in a statement that it had proposed nine so-called public welfare programs in exchange for waiving administrative penalties and asked the NCC to quickly choose one of them.
Some of the programs were to donate 10,000 4G smartphones equipped with the VOLTE system; to donate 5,000 5G smartphones; to donate 3,000 tablet computers or electronic readers; and to sponsor 1,000 low-income families with children in rural areas by providing tablet computers and smartphones to access broadband services free of charge for two years.
Asked which program the commission intended to choose, NCC Secretary-General Huang Wen-che (黃文哲) said commissioners yesterday ruled that continuing the mediation proceeding is not necessary.
“What the company did not tell the public was that it had also requested an extension until Sept. 15 to dispose of the excess bandwidth and that it would shut down base stations that operate using the excess bandwidth only after they have been integrated with other base stations,” Huang said. “This means it would continue using the excess bandwidth until Sept. 15.”
In a letter on Monday last week, Taiwan Mobile asked the to NCC stop issuing unfavorable rulings against it over the excess bandwidth and abolish those already issued, Huang said.
The company also told the court that all four NCC commissioners must be at the mediation proceedings on Thursday next week, he said.
“We have noticed that the company has recently recruited more workers to shorten the time needed to integrate base stations,” he said. “This proves that returning the excess bandwidth by June 30 was not an unreasonable request.”
“As to the public welfare programs proposed by Taiwan Mobile, it is difficult to say that they are reasonable offers and can effectively compensate consumers and maintain order in the telecom market,” Huang said.
“We also found it difficult to believe Taiwan Mobile is sincere about settling the matter in mediation, given that in its brief to the court, it spoke rashly regarding the NCC commissioners’ ruling,” he said, adding that he could not understand why a publicly listed firm would make such requests.
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