Taiwan Debates Renewing GSM Licenses in 2012

There is a dispute amongst Taiwan's mobile network operators over the fate of the existing GSM licenses which are due to expire in 2012. The incumbent holders want them renewed, while the 3G and WiMAX license holders want the licenses terminated and the radio spectrum refarmed to all the companies.

The Taiwan Economic News reports that the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) is drawing up new regulations to make the allocation of limited frequency-spectrum resource more efficient in the post-2G market.

The 2G license holders, Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone Telecom argue that the country needs to retain its existing 2G networks as roaming revenues are still an important contributor to their finances and that their networks could be rendered redundant if the radio spectrum was removed.

The 3G license holders, Vibo Telecom and Asia Pacific Broadband Wireless Communications, along with the WiMAX licensees argue that the government could earn revenues from reselling the licenses to a wider number of holders and that the government would be following international trends.

The government could however take a medium route, and noting the migration of consumers to 3G handsets, take back part of the 2G spectrum and resell it to the new entrants. This would mirror plans being debated in the UK, where the operators hand back some of their 2G spectrum in exchange for permission to run 3G services over the 900Mhz bands.

According to figures from the Mobile World analysts, the country ended Q1 '09 with around 11.9 million GSM subscribers, along with an estimated 10.6 million 3G users. There are also an estimated 1.85 million CDMA subscribers.

On the web: Taiwan Economic News - Mobile World

Posted to the site on 25th May 2009