Taiwan market: Pricing for fixed-line to mobile calls to be shifted to fixed-line operators Tweet

Taiwan's National Communications Commission (NCC) on April 28 decided to shift the pricing rights for voice calls from fixed-line telephone numbers to mobile phone numbers to fixed-line telecom carries between 2011 to 2015, according to NCC.

Currently, mobile telecom carriers set prices for such voice calls and pay interconnection fees to the corresponding telecom carriers. In light of the international convention that pricing rights are due to the operators of the outgoing call rather than the receiving end, NCC made the decision to change its policy. In order to minimize the impact of the shift on mobile telecom carriers, the shift will be implemented in several phases over the five years beginning January 2011, NCC pointed out.

For the average charge rate of NT$5.50 (US$0.18) per minute for voice calls from fixed-line telephone numbers to mobile phones, operators of the former and the latter share revenues at NT$1.09 and NT$4.41, respectively, according to industry experts. Based on current fees of NT$2.15-2.5 for interconnection between fixed-line and mobile networks, mobile telecom carriers have gross margins of NT$1.91-2.26 per minute, the portion to be due to fixed-line operators after the pricing rights are shifted, the sources pointed out.

Since Chunghwa Telecom accounts for 97% of the 12.8 million fixed-line telephone lines in Taiwan, the company will greatly benefit from the shift, the sources indicated.

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