Chunghwa Telecom drew the most consumer complaints for its mobile communication services in June as construction of its 5G system slightly disrupted its 4G operations, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday.
Chunghwa and Taiwan Mobile launched their 5G service on June 30, Far EasTone Telecommunications launched its on July 3, and all three were building cell sites prior to their launches.
The commission received 432 complaints about mobile communications service, with 134 from Chunghwa Telecom customers, an increase of 37 percent over June last year and making it the only telecom to see an increase in consumer complaints, data showed.
Of its complaints, 270 were about poor connection quality, making that issue the No. 1 source of complaints, far ahead of the Nos. 2 and 3 issues: disputes over installation of service and changes in service contracts (52 cases) and service cancelations (19 cases).
Of the complaints against Chunghwa Telecom over poor connection quality, 68 were about voice communications service and 34 were about data service.
The commission said the poor connection quality of 4G service was largely due to the temporary shutdown of cell sites for software upgrades to prepare for 5G service.
The 4G and 5G systems were developed using different spectrums, and the latter has far fewer subscribers, the commission said.
It is not possible that the 4G system became slower because of congestion at the intermediate links of its core network, the NCC said, adding that it would ask Chunghwa to find ways to upgrade facilities without compromising service quality.
Chunghwa Telecom also discounted the idea that mutual interference in the 4G and 5G systems had led to problems, as they use different spectrums.
“We have been building the infrastructure for the 5G system in the past few months, and the cell sites used by both 4G and 5G systems need to be upgraded before they are reactivated. As such, cell sites would be temporarily shut down once, which could disrupt reception for 4G users for 10 to 15 minutes,” the telecom said.
It also denied deliberately slowing 4G data transmission speed so subscribers would want to migrate to 5G, adding that an internal test found that its 4G service transmits data faster than before 5G service was launched.
Certain areas might have experienced slower Internet transmission as the demand for data communication has dramatically increased since February and the outbreak of COVID-19, it said.
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