In order to deepen understanding of the quality of telecommunications universal service being provided to the Smangus Tribe in Yufeng Village and Hsinguang Tribe in Hsiuluan Village of Jianshi Township, Hsinchu County, NCC Chairperson Herng Su and commissioners Shi-Chung Chang, Chorng-Jian Liu and Hsueh-Wen Wei, on November 21 and 22, led commissioners of Telecommunications Universal Service Fund and its project team to investigate service in the neighborhoods. Seminars were held at the Smangus Tribe’s and Hsinguang Elementary School to hear opinions from schools and tribe representatives on the universal service provided by the telecommunications companies, which served as a reference for NCC to supervise the providers to improve the universal service for communications in remote townships.

　　The Smangus Tribe has been installed with broadband network by a project of Telecommunications Universal Service Fund since late 2003, and the basic communications right of the tribe has been safeguarded, which has further developed its local ecological tourism and promoted its agricultural products. The chief of the tribe Icyeh Sulung and tribe elder Yuraw Icyang expressed their gratitude toward NCC and telecommunications providers for the assistance of establishing broadband network in the tribe so that they are able to market their agricultural products and ecological tourism via Internet, and people from around the world can discover the beauty of Smangus through Internet. However, Lahuy Icyeh, a resident of the tribe indicated that the highest broadband speed in the tribe is currently only 3Mbps and that it is quite unstable. The bandwidth in Smagus Experiment Branch School of Hsinguang Elementary School is only 2Mbps which is not sufficient for Internet instruction. Compared with 100Mbps bandwidth in Hsinguang Elementary School, the tribe hopes that the service providers can upgrade the broadband speed.

　　Principal Chih-Ming Chen of Hsinguang Elementary School briefed the results of after-school tutoring via Internet and appreciated NCC and the telecommunications providers for the improvement of Internet bandwidth through the access of data communications and for the donation of computers. Chairperson Chun-Ming Chuang of Parent Teacher Association (PTA) in Hsinguang Elementary School demonstrated that cable TV providers had provided cable TV in Hsinguang Tribe. However, he noted that although the Cinsibu Tribe is not far away from Hsinguang Tribe, it could not watch cable TV. He hoped that the TV providers can provide cable TV in Cinsibu Tribe as soon as possible. He also hoped that the providers can uplift broadband speed in the tribe to over 10Mbps and that mobile communications providers can establish more base stations in the tribe to improve the quality of signals.

　　NCC stated that it would request the telecommunications providers to increase Internet bandwidth on demand, upgrade the broadband speed at school and improve the quality of communications. Moreover, the cable TV providers will be requested to survey people’s needs in Cinsibu Tribe, and they will also be urged to propose a construction project on the subsidy for cable TV, while the telecommunications providers will be requested to improve the regions in Hsinguang Tribe with poor mobile communications.