Taiwan: Government to Expand Fibre-Optic Broadband Network

Text of report in English by Taiwanese newspaper Taipei Times website on 4 December

The government said yesterday that it would double the coverage of the nation’s high-speed fibre-optic network to one million households by the end of next year by encouraging construction firms to include broadband networks in new projects.

By the end of this year, 500,000 families are expected to be able to connect to higher-speed internet connections on fibre-optic cables rather than on existing copper phone lines, the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Industrial Development Bureau said.

“It is becoming a trend for construction companies to work with telecom companies to provide fibre-optic networks for new buildings in order to lure buyers,” said Leu Jang-hwa, a director of the bureau. No incentives were given to construction firms or telecom operators, though, he said.

In Asia, Japan, which had 9.96m households linked to fibre-optic connections in June, is taking the lead in building fibre-optic networks. China is also working to catch up in order to provide wider bandwidth during the Beijing Olympics next year, Leu said.

In Taiwan, households with fibre-optic connections are predicted to rise to more than 2.5m by 2010, and account for approximately 25 per cent of total broadband users, replacing existing Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) technology that provides data transmission via copper phone lines, Leu said.

Chunghwa Telecom Co, the nation’s largest telecoms operator, is the only provider offering a broadband service on fibre-optic. The company plans to spend 60bn New Taiwan dollars building its fibre- optic network in the next five years, the firm said early this year.

The telecoms carrier also hopes to increase the number of customers connected via fibre optics to 500,000 by the year’s end. It expects 2.4m to be connected by 2010, compared to 170,000 households as of March.

As of last month, the company had 470,000 subscribers.

Originally published by Taipei Times website, Taipei, in English 4 Dec 07.

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