At the Cabinet meeting held today, Premier Jiang Yi-huah affirmed the National Communications Commission's (NCC) long-term efforts at promoting universal telecommunications service.
"The NCC has improved telephone and broadband coverage for remote areas," said the premier. "The agency's efforts at safeguarding these residents' basic telecommunication rights and interests and narrowing the urban-rural digital divide are commendable.
"The broadband coverage rate is crucial to national competitiveness," noted Jiang. He requested the NCC to continue with the construction of basic telecommunications network infrastructure in remote areas and to proactively collaborate with the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Education, Council of Indigenous Peoples, Ministry of Health and Welfare and local governments to keep abreast of rural communities' broadband service needs and resolve infrastructure-related issues such as road and land use rights and the issuance of relevant permits.
The premier made these remarks after hearing the NCC's report on the outcome of its work in this matter and the direction of its policy in recent years. According to the NCC, it began implementing a policy of providing broadband services to villages, boroughs and tribes in remote areas in 2012. Transmission at speeds of higher than 12Mbps is expected to be delivered to 85 percent of current rural broadband subscribers by the end of 2014 and 95 percent by the end of 2015.
The government promulgated the Telecommunications Universal Service Regulations in 2001 and first targeted voice-based telecommunications and the provision of discounted Internet access for elementary and junior high schools, indicated the NCC. With the advent of the digital era, however, the provision of access to broadband Internet service in economically disadvantaged areas was incorporated into the policy of telecommunications universal service in 2006, and the policies of "broadband for every village," "broadband for every tribe" and "high-speed broadband for villages, boroughs and tribes in remote areas" were implemented between 2007 and 2013.
As of the end of 2013, broadband infrustraucture construction had been completed in 226 villages and boroughs and 215 tribes located in remote areas. Moreover, to give these communities an improved e-learning environment, construction of optical-fiber broadband with two-way transmission speeds of up to 100 Mbps was launched on school campuses of various outlying islands in 2008. Their construction on Kinmen, Liuqiu, Orchid Island, Matsu and Green Island has already been completed; work in the Penghu Islands is ongoing.