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.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday established a friendship group with their counterparts in Ukraine to promote parliamentary exchanges between the two countries. A ceremony in Taipei for the Taiwan-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Association, initiated by DPP Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷), was attended by lawmakers and officials, including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) and European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan Director Lutz Gullner. The increasingly dire situation in Ukraine is a global concern, and Taiwan cannot turn its back when the latter is in need of help, as the two countries share many common values and interests,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
RSS