Taiwan: Cross-Sector Telecoms Operations To Be Regulated

The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) intends to draft regulatory principles for the regulation of cross-sector activities in the telecoms market after the Ministry of Transportation and Communications liberalizes fixed network business.

The FTC recently completed policy studies for the regulation of the "4C" industries i.e., telecommunications, cable, computer networks and e-commerce, and will begin drafting related regulatory rules. The FTC states that the legal basis for regulation of the telecoms industry is the Fair Trade Law (FTL) and the Telecommunications Law (TL). The regulatory principles will be based on the following provisions: FTL Article 10 which prohibits abuse of market status by monopolistic enterprises; FTL Article 11 which governs "business combinations" (i.e. mergers and acquisitions); FTL Article 14 which governs concerted actions; FTL Article 19 which prohibits unfair competition; FTL Article 24 which prohibits unfair conducts detrimental to the trading order; and the provisions of the TL prohibiting refusal to disclose the computation basis of network interconnection charges, improper setting of charging rates for telecoms services, and improper refusal of other enterprises' requests to lease network elements or circuits, enter into negotiations or conduct tests.

The FTC will also draft provisions requiring accounting separation and prohibiting cross-subsidy, improper use of market status to inhibit other enterprises' participation in competition, unequal treatment, and improper determination of charging rates for telecoms services.

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