Taiwan's National Communications Commission (NCC) on November 1 approved a monthly lease rate of NT$140 (US$4.30) proposed by Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) for use of the company's copper-wire subscriber lines by other operators of fixed-line telecommunication services.
As CHT was Taiwan's only fixed telecom carrier before its privatization, the company almost has a monopoly on the fixed subscriber line networks around Taiwan, according to industry sources. NCC therefore requires that CHT offer subscriber lines in excess of the capacity needed for the company's own operations to be available to new fixed-line telecom carriers on a lease basis.
Currently, fixed-line telecom operators have to negotiate with CHT to lease the company's copper-wire subscriber lines, with monthly charges averaging NT$220 for voice communications and NT$260 for data plus voice communications, according to information from the NCC. Since new fixed-line telecom carriers think the price is too high, they have leased fewer than 100 of such lines out of a total of about 2,500 available lines, according to NCC data.
The NCC-approved price is a uniform level of NT$140 for either voice or data, dropping by 46.2% from NT$260. The price reduction is expected to be helpful for new fixed-line telecom carriers trying to solve problems of establishing last-mile connections to subscribers, the NCC indicated.
The price is effective from November 1, 2007 to August 31, 2008.
No comments:
Post a Comment