Goto Main Content
:::

Chapter Law Content

Chapter 4 Operations and Management for Universal Service
Article 16
In order to manage the Telecommunications Universal Service Fund related matters, the competent authority(NCC)shall establish the Telecommunications Universal Service Fund Administrative Committee(hereafter referred as the "committee").
The functions of the committee are set forth below:
Assessment of the annual implementation plans of the universal service.
Assessment of the subsidy applications of the universal service.
Assessment of the revenue figures for telecommunication service as reported by the Participating Universal Service Carriers.
Auditing and calculation of the proportions and amount of contributions to be made by the Participating Universal Service Carriers towards Universal Service Cost.
Auditing and assessment of the incomes and expenses of the Telecommunications Universal Service Fund.
Evaluation of the performance of the universal service regime.
Other matters concerning the telecommunications universal service.
From the date of enforcement of these Regulations, matters related to the Telecommunications Universal Service Fund stipulated in Article 27 of the Telecommunications Universal Service Regulations pursuant to Paragraph 4, Article 20 of the Telecommunications Act shall be governed by the committee established in accordance with Paragraph 1.
Article 17
The committee shall have thirteen to fifteen members and the number of members of each gender may not be less than one third. The chairman, also a member of the committee, shall be the head of the competent authority or the personnel authorized by the head; other members are to be selected by the head of the competent authority or the personnel authorized by the head from the entity among internal personnel, academics and experts.
Each member shall be appointed for one year as a term, with possible extension if necessary. In case of the withdrawal of member before the termination of the term, temporary substitutes shall be appointed to carry out the post till the end of the term.
Members shall not receive a salary. However, assessment fees, transportation fees or attendance fees may be paid in accordance with the relevant rules.
Article 18
The competent authority(NCC)shall, no later than December 1 of the year prior to the implementation year, set forth the universal service providers and the implementation plans.
Every universal service provider shall provide universal service in accordance with the implementation plan in the preceding paragraph in the implementation year. However, in case of unpredicted events such as a necessary change of plan, the universal service provider shall apply for change of implementation plan with the competent authority(NCC)and carry out the change after approval.
In the case where the implementation plan of the provider of the Voice-based Telecommunications Universal Service stated in paragraph 1 includes provision of the facilities for Telecommunications Universal Service on Data Transmission, the service provider shall provide Telecommunications Universal Service on Data Transmission in uneconomic areas in accordance with functions of the facilities; and shall not apply for extra subsidy of Telecommunications Universal Service on Data Transmission in uneconomic areas based on the facilities.
Article 19
Universal service providers shall not reject any service applications in the areas in which they serve without justifiable reasons; apart from the approved fees and charges, the providers shall not charge the subscribers extra fees.
Article 20
Universal service providers shall submit universal service subsidy applications and the related information to the competent authority(NCC)for subsidies of the implementation year no later than May 1 of the year following the implementation year.
Universal service subsidy applications of Voice-based Telecommunications Universal Service and Telecommunications Universal Service on Data Transmission shall contain the following information:
Statistics of the universal service implementation results(including the effectiveness of the improvements in terms of universal service penetration and the service quality, in addition, the effects on society shall be analyzed).
Net costs of various universal service categories and the requested amount of subsidy.
Detailed calculations of the net universal service costs for each implementation year audited by certified accountants.
The universal service provider who has set up a mobile communication network shall apply for a new transmission station for the establishment of a telecommunications universal service, and certification of approval should be attached.
Subsidy application of the Telecommunications Universal Service on Data Transmission in local schools and the public libraries shall contain the following information:
Statistics of the universal service implementation results(including the accessible circuit statistics, service quality and tariffs of Telecommunications Universal Service on Data Transmission as provided to schools and the public libraries).
The universal service subsidy requests of the universal implementation year audited by certified accountants.
Universal service providers, when calculating the penetration of Voice-based Telecommunications Universal Service and Telecommunications Universal Service on Data Transmission in all regions, shall be based on the proportion of total households in the area with telephone service to the total number of households in the area.
The subsidies as requested in Subparagraph 2, Paragraph 2 and Subparagraph 2, Paragraph 3 shall include the three months’ interest as calculated from the one-year fixed deposit interest rate as announced by the Bank of Taiwan on the day of application.
The subsidies, after deduction of the above interest, in Subparagraph 2, Paragraph 2 of Voice-based Telecommunications Universal Service and Telecommunications Universal Service on Data Transmission as calculated by the universal service providers cannot exceed 105% of the predicted subsidy amounts in the approved implementation plans of the service providers.
Article 21
Universal service providers shall regulate a procedure manual for accounting purposes, and apply for approval before its implementation. Approval is also required for any revisions of the procedure manual. Except those only providing discounts of Internet access offered to local schools and public libraries.
If deemed necessary, the administrative authority may order the universal service provider to revise the procedure manual.
If there are any significant changes in organization, business and operation of the universal service provider that lead to the revision of the procedure manual, the universal service provider shall revise accordingly, and report to the administrative authority for reference after such revision.
The procedure manual, in Paragraph 1, shall state and describe concrete methods and procedures for implementing Article 22.
Article 22
When calculating the cost of universal service, a telecommunications universal service provider shall meet the following requirements:
Net Universal Service Costs shall be calculated based on the long-term incremental cost of the full service and avoidable costs.
The avoidable cost of universal service should be the cost incurred under efficient management.
The long-term incremental cost of full service in Subparagraph 1 of the preceding paragraph refers to the increased cost in the long-term of providing a full set of services in addition to the existing services.
The cost of efficient management in Subparagraph 2, Paragraph 1 refers to the cost calculated in accordance with the following conditions:
According to the current most cost-effective technology.
Calculate relevant costs in accordance with the prices of materials and equipment of current market.
Calculate the cost of capital based on the return on capital in the current market.
Calculate the investment amount based on the expected value of future demand, and the cost of eliminating excess investment.
Information regarding cost submitted by universal service provider shall meet the following requirements:
Various cost data shall have a clear calculation process and a traceable origin.
The revenue, cost, net cost or data of benefits of other telecommunication services of a single local exchange office in the city network for telephone services in uneconomic areas shall be summarized and reported.
Shared costs shall be excluded from Net Universal Service Costs.
A cost analysis model shall be submitted, explaining reasonable separation of shared costs and combined into universal service costs.
Article 23
Applications accepted and processed by the competent authority(NCC)for universal service subsidies shall be published, and applications shall be assessed and have the results published no later than August 15 of the same year.
Publications of the applications in the preceding paragraph shall not include the detailed calculations of the net universal service cost in Subparagraph 3, Paragraph 2 of Article 20.
The competent authority(NCC)may request universal service providers and the certified accountants to submit supplementary information and explanations for the universal service subsidy applications assessment process.
Article 24
Telecommunications enterprises shall contribute to universal service costs. However, the telecommunications enterprises shall be exempted from sharing the universal service cost in the implementation year if the revenue as designated by the competent authority(NCC)is not achieved.
The telecommunication service revenue of the telecommunication enterprises registered in accordance with these Regulations in the current year shall include the pre-registration revenue of the telecommunication enterprise managed in accordance with the Telecommunication Act. Except for those that are not Participating Universal Service Carriers specified by the Telecommunications Act before the registration.
The contributing telecommunications enterprises in Paragraph 1 shall be the Participating Universal Service Carriers, they must report annual telecommunication service revenue figures, which are audited by certified accountants, to the competent authority(NCC)by June 1 of the year after the implementation year, together with the relevant accounting certification information.
The competent authority(NCC)may request participating universal service carriers and the certified accountants to submit supplementary information and explanations for the assessment of the telecommunication service revenue figures in the preceding Paragraph.
The telecommunication service revenue figures of the Participating Universal Service Carriers, their telecommunications service revenue reported on corporate annual income tax forms in the implementation year; the revenue forgone of the various universal service categories may be deducted.
Article 25
The participating universal service carriers shall share the amount of the universal service costs; the competent authority(NCC)shall multiply their proportion of the telecommunication service revenue in the implementation year of the participating universal service carriers’ total telecommunication service revenue as referred to in these Regulations and the Telecommunications Act with the universal service cost.
The proportion and amount that shall be contributed by the Participating Universal Service Carriers in the preceding paragraph shall be announced by the competent authority.
Article 26
The participating universal service carriers shall deposit their universal service payments into a designated telecommunications universal service fund account within one month after publishing of the contributing proportions and amounts; contributing parties that cannot deposit their total(or at least partial)share of the contributions shall be subject to the provisions contained in Article 75 of these Regulations, as well as penalty interests to the tune of the one-year fixed deposit rate as announced by the Bank of Taiwan on the last day of the one month period.
Participating Universal Service Carriers that fail to deposit their total(or at least partial)share of the contributions within three months starting from the due date shall have their deficits considered as bad debts.
Article 27
Participating Universal Service Carriers shall, in addition to sharing the universal service costs in accordance with preceding two Articles of these Regulations, contribute towards the reserve fund for bad debts:
Bad debts incurred in the first implementation year in accordance with these Regulations shall be considered part of the universal service charges for the second implementation year, and shall be shared amongst Participating Universal Service Carriers in accordance with the methods set forth in Article 25.
From the second implementation year onwards, a certain proportion in relation to the contributing universal service charges shall be paid annually.
The "certain proportion” in the preceding paragraph shall be set in accordance with the following criteria as well as the adjustment by the competent authority(NCC)according to the experience of collecting bad debts:
If the proportion of bad debts of the first implementation year exceeds 1%, the "certain proportion" shall be the proportion of bad debts.
If the proportion of bad debts of the first implementation year is less than 1%, the "certain proportion" shall be 1%.
The "proportion of bad debts” in the preceding paragraph shall be the proportion of bad debts incurred in an implementation year in relation to the total universal service costs in that year.
Article 28
Payments to the bad debts reserve fund as regulated in the previous article shall be suspended in the subsequent year if the accumulated sums exceed its upper limit. Payments shall be resumed in the subsequent year if the bad debts reserve fund after payment suspension falls to the lower limit.
The upper limit in the preceding paragraph shall be 5% of the total universal service charges in the first implementation year, and the lower limit shall be 2% of the total universal service charges in the first implementation year. These limits may be adjusted by the competent authority(NCC)depending on current circumstances.
If the bad debts reserve fund runs out in any implementation year, any deficits shall be considered universal service costs in the subsequent year, and shared amongst Participating Universal Service Carriers in accordance with the methods set forth in Article 25.
Article 29
The Telecommunications Universal Service Fund may only be used to pay for universal service costs, and may not be withdrawn for other purposes.