National Communications Commission (NCC) Chairman Howard Shyr (石世豪) yesterday said that the commission would release its ranking of telecommunications carriers according to the number of consumer complaints in the first quarter of the year.
Shyr made the announcement at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, held to review a proposed amendment to the Telecommunications Act (電信法) that would ban telecom carriers from building service station bases on the site of all schools up to the senior-high school level.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Chia-cheng (盧嘉辰) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) said that the commission had received 1,688 complaints involving disputes between telecoms carriers and consumers in the period between January and March this year, which accounted for more than 50 percent of the total last year.
Lee said the commission should be more active in resolving the disputes, rather than just forwarding the complaints to the relevant carrier. The public has a right to know which carrier received the largest number of complaints, he said, adding that this would motivate the carriers to improve.
Lee added that the regulations on seeking compensation from telecom carriers were too strict. Currently, consumers can only be compensated if they experience a disconnection in mobile communication service for more than two hours or for more than 12 hours for fixed network services. He said that users’ monthly service fee should be waived if their carrier fails to resume normal service within two hours.
The committee passed a resolution asking the commission to study the feasibility of demanding that land or property owned by government agencies and state-run corporations be made available for base stations. The resolution also urged the commission to monitor changes in electromagnetic waves near the base stations every season without giving notice to the carriers.
KMT Legislator Luo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) and DPP Legislator Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said that nearly all government agencies had turned down requests to have a station installed on their premises because it would upset the residents in their neighborhoods. The two legislators said that the public’s aversion to the stations is proof that the commission has failed to assure people about the safety of living near the stations.
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
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