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Conference on Digital Convergence and Industry Development: Policy and Regulations

發布時間:2022-12-27 11:21:50

Telecom and media experts from Japan, South Korea and the U.S. gathered together on Aug. 21 for the Conference on Digital Convergence and Industry Development: Policy and Regulations jointly held by the Taiwan Communication Society (TCS) and the 21st Century Foundation. 

Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國), Vice Premier of the Executive Yuan and also the founder of TCS, and Jaclyn Tsai (蔡玉玲) , Minister without Portfolio of the Executive Yuan, were invited as guests of honor.  Mao pointed out that nowadays the focus of digital convergence was on catching up with technological advancements and satisfying consumer demand. Tsai added that she believed the spectrum policy would become more transparent and impartial through conversations with scholars and operators, which will end up improving consumers’ well-being.  

Yu Hsiao-cheng (虞孝成), vice chairman of the National Communication Commission (NCC), along with four of the NCC’s commissioners, Tu Jenn-hwa (杜震華) , Wong Po-tsong (翁柏宗), Peng Shin-yi (彭心儀) and Katherine Chen(陳億寧), were invited to host the panels and discussions.  Peng also gave a talk on the regulations in relation to mobile communication, and laid particular emphasis on the issue of spectrum sharing. “Fixed spectrum allocation may disappear in the near future,” Peng said, adding that spectrum sharing is a global trend, and suggesting that the government formulate the policy on a macro scale. 

The conference provided a platform for the government and experts to exchange opinions on policies towards digital convergence.  Prof. Kiyotaka Yuguchi from the Department of Societal Management, Faculty of Human Society at Sagami Women’s University analyzed the reasons why the Japanese government prefers a spectrum user fee to auctions.  Yuguchi said that the two major parties in Japan held opposite views on auctions, and that the revenue from the auctions would be regarded as part of a general fund instead of going directly to the communications industry.

Kim Deuk Won, a research fellow at the Korea Information Society Development Institute (KISDI), shared experiences on spectrum auctions in South Korea where the operators have the right to decide which mobile communications technologies to use in the spectrums they succeeded in winning in the auctions. 

Xu Yan (徐岩) , Associate Dean of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) Business School, compared the licensing methods of 2G and 3G in Hong Kong. Xu pointed out that 2G licenses were released through government certifications and that the operators would be fined if they failed to realize the development schedules until the agreed time.  As for 3G, the operators paid a certain percentage of their revenue in the form of a licensing fee to the government, and the actual percentage would be floating according to the amount of the revenue. 

Local experts and telecommunications businesses were all concerned about the unclear licensing schedule and radio interference, and called for the government to adhere to international standards when formulating the regulations on spectrums. 

Wang Tin-jun (王廷俊), the director of the Department of Posts and Telecommunications at the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, said that the Project on Spectrum Supply would be announced this year, and included the assessment of releasing extra frequency bands for mobile communications. 

Assistant professor Huang Kuang-chi (黃光渠) from the Department of Management Science at National Chiao Tung University said that the government should decrease the uncertainty brought about by 4G, and announce the licensing schedule as early as possible since the operators need time to adapt to new regulations. 

Prof. Tsai Zse-hong (蔡志宏) from the Department of Electrical Engineering at National Taiwan University iterated the importance of using the same frequency bands as the international market, to which most of the terminal mobile devices can be applied.    

Director Jian Pei-hua (江珮華) from Far EasTone and Tom Koh (郭宇泰) from Taiwan Mobile mentioned that they had been bothered by the frequency interference of micro phones and cable TVs. Far EasTone had expended a huge amount of resources on reducing the interference, and appealed to the government to step in to solve the problem.  Su Tien-tsai (蘇添財), the vice president of the Department of Corporate Planning at China Telecom, recommended that the government use a 5MHz guard band to avoid interference.  Fang Siou-jhong (方修忠) , the vice president of the Department of Law Affairs at Taiwan Star, urged the government to release the 2.6GHz spectrum to enable Taiwan to catch up with the developed countries. 

In addition to the discussion on spectrum policy, Christopher J. Lammers, executive vice president and CEO of Cable Labs, shared the results of tests on the interference between LTE and the signals of cable TVs. The tests showed that customer premises equipment (CPE) performed well under the field strength of 63 dBmV/m, but further tests were still needed to reconfirm the results.