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.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
RSS