Taiwan’s National Communications Commission (NCC) has given the nod for a range of reductions in the monthly charges for local multi-service operator Chunghwa Telecom’s fixed broadband services. According to Digitimes, the pricing reductions of between 3.9% and 4.3% became effective 1 April 2015 and will remain valid until 31 March 2016.
With regards to the operator’s ADSL-based services, a top-end plan offering downlink speeds of 8Mbps will now cost TWD334 (USD10.79) per month, down from a previous price of TWD348 per month, while the entry-level 2Mbps plan has been reduced by 4.2% to TWD114 per month. For the operator’s fibre-optic broadband tariffs, a premium service offering 100Mbps/40Mbps downlink/uplink speeds is now charged at TWD540 per month, compared with a previous rate of TWD563, while the lowest cost fibre tariff – which allows customers to connect at speeds of 6Mbps/2Mbps down/up – is now TWD328 per month, down from TWD342 per month. Meanwhile, the NCC is also said to have approved reductions proposed by the telco for monthly private peering prices for other internet service providers (ISPs), reducing the cost from TWD411 per Mbps to TWD394 per Mbps.
As noted in TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, at the end of December 2014 Chunghwa Telecom had 1.419 million ADSL subscribers on its books, down from 1.598 million a year earlier, while it reported 3.120 million fibre accesses at that same date, up from 2.955 million at end-2013.
In separate but related news, Chunghwa is said to be planning to adopt G.Fast technology to provide download speeds of 500Mbps for fibre-optic subscribers in the second half of 2015, Digitimes said, citing a report by Chinese-language Economic Daily News.