On July 17th, NCC hosted the 2012 Taiwan-Czech Republic Telecommunications Policies Workshop, held at the International Conference Hall of National Communications Commission Building. The Czech delegation was led by chairman of the Czech Telecommunication Office (CTO), Dr. Pavel Dvořák, who gave several talks throughout the morning, primarily regarding the Czech experience in 4G spectrum policies, licensing and the digital switchover, among other issues. In the afternoon of the same day, NCC arranged for an exchange of IPv6 experiences (both domain name and National Internet Registry) between principal investigator of Czech Information Processing Center, Mr. Jiri Prusa, and the chairman of Taiwan Network Information Center, Ceng, Sian-Syong.
Since the last meeting between the NCC and CTO in the Czech Republic last year facilitated the signing of the Taiwan-Czech Republic Telecommunications Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding, the workshop in Taiwan was centered on strengthening bilateral cooperation and turning agreements into concrete action. It also aimed to promote long-term development and enhance friendship between Taiwan and the Czech Republic.
Chairperson Su of NCC and Chairman Dr. Pavel Dvořák of CTO delivered speeches to open the Workshop, which attracted hundreds of attendees that included representatives from the public sector, industry, and academia.
During her opening address, Chairperson Su asserted that NCC acknowledged the influence 4G had on the ICT Industry and stressed how essential it was to supply appropriate spectrum resources for the development of 4G services. She also noted that NCC was keen to learn about the experiences of CTO, which, after extensive efforts, had just begun accepting applications for 4G services on July 12. The chairperson also emphasized that the discussions regarding the digital switchover and IPv6 issues in the afternoon would assist in determining how to promote the development of information and ICT industry most effectively in the digital era.
Minister without Portfolio Shan-Cheng Chang was also invited as a guest speaker. The minister highlighted the potential and convenience of the ubiquitous wireless broadband network and noted the rapid growth in emerging mobile application services. As demand for bandwidth dramatically increases, Minister Chang stressed that national regulatory agencies share the challenge of improving internet congestion. He further pointed out that the government should carefully consider the facilities and equipment of operators, technology maturity, WiFi services, and other processes before issue 4G licenses are issued; moreover, in the future, the government should plan and evaluate the design of 4G auction systems, which should take account of operators’ mode of operation.
In his address, Chairman Dr. Pavel Dvořák of CTO explained that during their planning of auctions for 4G licenses, from March, 2010 to May 11, 2012, they had conducted the public numerous times and, on July 11, 2012, announced submission of applications for 4G and the subsequent auction process scheduled for November; during the public consultation, they received opinions from 29 operators primarily concerning market entry for new entrants, the excessively high selling price, conditions and effective use of frequencies, obligations of the winning bidders, etc.
The workshop ended with a lively discussion among industries, academia and governments. During her closing speech, Chairman Su emphasized that change in technology has brought challenges for NCC and encouraged industry and academia to constantly provide NCC with valuable feedback and suggestions to enable regulatory policy to be drawn up more effectively.