- Artist : Mr. Chau-yih Yu
On March 30 2011 the National Communications Commission confirmed a unified rate of telephone calls from offshore islands (including Kinmen, Matsu, Wuciou and Penghu) to anywhere on the Taiwanese mainland as proposed by Chunghwa Telecom – the largest local and long-distance telephone company in Taiwan. This is the first step in achieving the goal of ‘unified rate’ calls nationwide, which means that there will be no more long-distance calls in Taiwan. The commission announced that the new measure will come into effect from January 1 2012.
In February 2011 the commission mapped out the latest pricing plans including the second phase of its price-cutting policy (for further details please see “NCC to implement tariff cuts regime”) and nationwide unified pricing plan to reduce or eliminate the difference between the cost of local-to-mobile, local-to-local and local-tolong- distance calls. The commission will revise the Regulations Governing Fixed Network Business and the Regulations of Telecommunication Numbers to adapt to the new measure. After the implementation of a nationwide unified pricing plan, the commission will cancel the current long-distance rates and raise local call rates.
Chunghwa has 12.4 million local phone subscribers, which account for 97% market share and an annual turnover of NT$30 billion for local calls and NT$7 billion for longdistance calls. According to a report submitted by Chunghwa to NCC, the new measure will impact Chunghwa’s annual revenue by about NT$3.5 billion. The commission has thus proposed several programmes to the Executive Yuan , including investment tax credits and subsidies or grants, to compensate for losses that Chunghwa could suffer.
The fixed-network telecommunication business pricing plan is shown below:
Old plan | New plan | |
Local calls | NT$0.53/per minute | NT$0.53/per minute |
Long-distance | NT$1.98/per minute | This category will be cancelled and there will be no difference |
The decreasing amplitude of mobile and fixed-network communication service rates is shown below:
Chunghwa | Taiwan Mobile | Far Eastone | |
ADSL circuit fee | 3.89-4.04% | ||
Long-distance calls | 3.86-4.26% | ||
Post-paid (2G to different networks and local calls) | 4.043-4.145% | ||
Pre-paid (2G to different networks and local calls) | 4.063-4.167% | ||
SMS (2G post-paid and pre-paid) | 4.041-4.044% | 4.04% | |
Post-paid (mobile-to-local calls) | 4.04% | 4.041-4.255% | |
Post-paid (mobile to different networks) | 4.04% | 4.041-4.255% | |
Pre-paid (mobile to different network and local calls) | 4.07% | 4.050-4.150% | |
SMS (post-paid to pre-paid) | 4.041-4.048% |
implement a tiered pricing mechanism before obtaining prior approval by the commission.
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