Taiwan Mobile fined over excess bandwidth

Taiwan Mobile has been fined NT$300,000 (US$9,136) as a default surcharge for failing to dispose of the excess bandwidth in frequency bands below 1 gigahertz (GHz) before the deadline designated by the National Communications Commission (NCC).

The commission issued the ruling on July 10 after listening to a statement by Taiwan Mobile chief technology officer C.H. Jih (揭朝華).

The nation’s second-largest telecom was told to rectify the situation within three days after it received the official ruling, or face a fine of NT$3 million for failing to follow its business plan.

The nation’s three large telecoms are permitted to have no more than 50 megahertz (MHz) in frequency bands below 1GHz, which can produce radio waves that have higher penetration and diffraction capabilities, and enable telecoms to broaden the service coverage of 5G systems.

Taiwan Mobile obtained 60MHz in highly sought-after frequency bands following its merger with Taiwan Star Telecom, which the commission approved last year on the condition that by June 30, Taiwan Mobile must return the excess bandwidth of 10MHz to the government, or sell or transfer it to other telecoms.

In his statement, Jih said the company is still using the excess bandwidth to serve customers, but that it is scheduled to consolidate the base stations of Taiwan Mobile and Taiwan Star by the end of

November and return the excess bandwidth to the Ministry of Digital Affairs by the end of December.

Taiwan Mobile said in a separate statement that it has been working ahead of its schedule since Dec. 1 last year.

“However, the time that we had to consolidate the network was too short, and the court has yet to rule over the administrative lawsuit that we filed challenging the conditions of the merger,” the company said. “To ensure the quality of services offered to users and protect shareholders’ interests, we have found it difficult to return the excess bandwidth before the end of June.”

NCC commissioners disagreed with Taiwan Mobile’s explanation, saying it has other ways to protect its users.

“There are multiple ways for the company to consolidate the networks. Why does it have to choose the one that is difficult to complete within a short period of time?” NCC Chief Secretary Huang Wen-che (黃文哲) said on behalf of the commissioners.