Following the policy Broadband for Villages, NCC has expanded the construction of broadband network infrastructure farther in remote areas and has appointed Chunghwa Telecom Company Limited to provide data communication access universal service to 42 Tribes (Neighborhoods) in uneconomical areas in 10 counties: Taipei County, Taoyuan County, Ilan County, Hsinchu County, Miaoli County, Hualian County, Chiayi County, Pingdong County, Kaohsiung County, and Taidong County. As for 6 Neighborhoods of Shanmei Village - Chashan Village, and Shizi Village at Alishan Township of Chiayi County - Taiwan Fixed Network Company Limited will provide the service; for the initiation service at Qingshui Village and Yongfu Village of Zhongliao Township of Nantou County will be provided By TINP, and it is hoped that these constructions can help to stimulate more tribes in remote areas to utilize broadband service.
The objective to furnish 45 villages with broadband Internet service by telecom service providers by NCC last year had already been completed by December 15 last year, making our country the first around the world deploy broadband to all its villages. However, after completion of Broadband for Villages, there are still some residents in even more extreme remote areas who echo the needs for broadband network. Handicapped by the problem of cable construction among telecom service providers, NCC on February 29, 2008, modified and promulgated ”Regulations on Telecommunications Universal Service” to appoint Chunghwa Telecom Company Limited, Taiwan Fixed Network Company Limited, and TINP to provide broadband Internet universal services to 50 Tribes (Neighborhoods) based on the needs of uneconomical areas so that residents in remote areas can also utilize the broadband network; it also reduces the digital divide between rural and urban areas.
NCC determined that out of a total of 847 tribal settlements, according to information provided by the Council of Indigenous Peoples of the Executive Yuan, approximately 200 of them tribes still are without access to broadband. Therefore, NCC indicates that it will, starting from the first half of the year, begin to screen and select from the above-mentioned amount of Tribes (Neighborhoods) the prioritized areas for broadband network construction based on the amount of households, need for broadband network, local economic development, landscape, cultural features, and hostel and other tourism resource conditions suitable for development. To avoid waste of resources, NCC will also commission impartial groups to conduct comprehensive surveys for the need of broadband network, allocation regarding the amount of installation for broadband network, and investment of administration resources on information education as well as equipment among tribes (neighborhoods) for the implementation of medium- and long-term universal measure of broadband construction in remote areas. As such, it can provide itself as basis for telecom service providers as reference to implement annual project of broadband construction in the future.
In consideration of the geographical isolation and scattered settlements in remote areas, NCC will, to lower construction expenditure, supervise operators to resort to wireless microwave or fiber optic construction. Besides, it will also request that broadband should be provided with quality of at least 2M so that it can provide effective telecommunication services such as internet, local phone service, and paid-phone service to residents of 50 Tribes (Neighborhoods). It is estimated that the total expenditure of construction shall reach NT$78,000,000, and the entire designated goal can be completed by the end of the year.
Contact to:
2343-3625 Senior Engineer Lin, Qing-Heng
2343-3610 Chief Li, Ming-Zhong
