Chunghwa sale forces government to delay telecoms deregulation

The government of Taiwan is planning to delay the deregulation of the island’s telecoms industry for up to a year to minimise the threat of any possible disruption to the sale of a stake in Chunghwa Telecom, according to the Financial Times. The state plans to reduce its shareholding from 65% to below 50% by the end of June, raising up to USD3.4 billion in the process. Two months ago however, the regulator, the Directorate General of Telecommunications (DGT), moved to persuade Chunghwa to open up its ‘last mile’ to broadband data services in return for an increased portion of fixed-to-mobile revenues to stimulate competition. The lack of access to Chunghwa’s network has undermined competition: to date the incumbent’s rivals have secured less than 20% of the broadband market. With the matter unresolved, the government feared the situation could undermine the share placement and has postponed a decision on LLU for data until 2006.