Taipei: Chunghwa Telecom expects to restore phone, broadband, and MOD service on Tuesday, after disruptions caused by Typhoon Danas last month, according to the Taiwanese partly state-owned telecom company. Speaking at a legislative committee meeting on Monday, Chunghwa Telecom Chairman Chien Chih-cheng stated that full repairs to 33 damaged mobile base stations are expected to be completed by the end of October. In the interim, temporary mobile stations have been deployed to provide network coverage.
According to Focus Taiwan, as of July 31, 2,141 households in municipalities including Tainan, Chiayi County, Chiayi City, and Yunlin County remain without landline service, while 764 broadband connections are still affected. These details were provided by Chunghwa Telecom during the meeting.
The Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA), National Communications Commission (NCC), Chunghwa Telecom, and Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) participated in the Transportation Committee meeting of the Legislative Yuan. NCC Acting Chairperson Chen Chung-shu reported that over 30 mobile base station vehicles are operating daily in the Chianan area, which broadly covers Yunlin County, Chiayi County, Chiayi City, and Tainan. Taiwan’s three main mobile telecom operators are offering affected users 300 free call minutes per month for two months and have introduced additional support measures.
MODA Deputy Minister Chueh Her-ming announced that the ministry will assist companies in purchasing mobile vehicles equipped with satellite terminal equipment, with each operator planning to buy three. The digital ministry will also subsidize related equipment, including satellite terminal racks, domestic routers, firewalls, and Wi-Fi access points, and support retrofitting of 31 existing vehicles.
Chueh highlighted that power outages disrupted many base stations, prompting telecom companies to agree on purchasing over 200 portable generators to restore service in blackout zones. He added that MODA and the NCC will prioritize constructing high-resilience base stations with 72-hour backup power and promoting shared-infrastructure base stations using Taipower substations. Additionally, underground cabling solutions will be studied for disaster-prone areas and evacuation shelters, among other technical measures.