Transportation & Telecommunications. ROC (Taiwan) Yearbook 2011 Ch12 transportation and telecommunications

Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s proximity to major cities in the north provides an edge for developing the airport’s environs into an “aerotropolis” and a global logistics hub for the Asia-Pacific region.

12六校 (spelling) (indexed).indd 162 2011/10/18 1:07:01 AM

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At a Glance

Along with Taiwan’s strong rebound in domestic production and trade in 2010, cargo arrivals at international ports rose to about 655 million revenue tons, while the volume and value of trade through free trade zones increased dramatically. In

addition, improving ties between Taiwan and mainland China since mid-2008 have boosted passenger traffic and reduced travel time across the Taiwan Strait. In 2010, the total number of visitors from abroad swelled to over 5 million.

Modernization of transportation and communications networks over the past half-century-plus set the stage for successive phases of economic development in Taiwan. The process continues today in the form of the i-Taiwan 12 Projects, which aim to improve roads, renovate port facili-ties, expand public transit networks nationwide, transform Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and its environs into a globally focused “aerotropolis” and boost telecommunications connectivity.

Such public works presage a brighter future for generations to come, en-abling them to avail themselves of numerous new opportunities in the cul-tural and creative, medical and other service and manufacturing industries.

• Transportationvolumesreboundinabigway

• ConstructiononadditionalTaipeiMetrolinesandextensions

• InternationalportsconnectTaiwantotheworld

12 Transportation and Telecommunications


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12Transportation and Telecommunications

TransportationLand TransportationRoads

Roads are the most important aspectof Taiwan’s transportation infrastructure,extendingover40,000kilometers to con-nect locations around the island. Mostof the roadways are concentrated in thewestern coastal lowlands and hilly areas,which occupy about a third of Taiwan’s36,000-square-kilometerarea.

Two main highways, the Sun Yat-sen Freeway 中山高速公路 and the For-mosa Freeway 福爾摩沙高速公路, servethe densely populated west coast of themainisland.The373-kilometerSunYat-sen Freeway was built in the 1970s tofacilitate Taiwan’s economic develop-ment by improving transport links be-tweenindustrialparksandseaportswhileboosting domestic commerce. As rapidgrowth of vehicular traffic threatenedto outstrip the capacity of this high-way, work began in 1987 on the 432-kilometer Formosa Freeway, which wascompleted in 2004. Numerous east-westroutesof local inter-countyroadsystemsfeedintothesemajornorth-southarteries.

June 2006 saw the completion of the55.3-kilometer Chiang Wei-shui Freeway蔣渭水高速公路,whichrunsfromthenorth-east seaport of Su-ao Township 蘇澳鎮northwardalongthecoast toYilanCity宜蘭市andthencutsnorthwestwardthroughamountainrangetoNewTaipeiCity新北市.The latter sectionofhighway includes the12.9-kilometer Xueshan Tunnel 雪山隧道,theworld’sfifth-longesthighwaytunnel.

In 2010, an average of 1.52 millionvehiclestraveledthethreefreewayseveryday, an increase of 2.9 percent from theprevious year. The standard toll for carsis NT$40 (US$1.36), which can be paidviaanelectronictollcollectionsystem,ormanuallywithcashorpre-paidtickets.

Transportation networks are less de-veloped in eastern Taiwan, which, com-paredwith thewest,hasamuch smallerareaofflatlandandislesspopulousandindustrialized. Growing prosperity inTaiwan has boosted domestic tourism.Consequently, priority is being given todevelopmentoftransportationnetworksinthisregion,knownforitsnaturalbeauty.

Projects to this end include re-engineeringofthescenicSuhuaHighway蘇花公路,whichstretchessouthwardfromSu-ao Township to Hualien City 花蓮

市,with steepmountain slopesandcliffsaboveononesideandthePacificOceanbelow on the other. Launched in Janu-ary 2011, work on three sections of thehighway,withacombinedlengthof38.4kilometers, is expected to be completedby 2017, ensuring safe travel for locals,tourists and truckers, free of the threatoflandslides.

Also,undertheHualien-TaitungAreaDevelopmentAct花東地區發展條例passedJune 13, 2011, NT$40 billion (US$1.36billion) will be allocated over a 10-yearperiodfortheimprovementofinfrastruc-ture, tourism, ecological sites and otherconcerns in Hualien and Taitung 臺東counties.Specialattentionwillbepaidtoproviding safe, reliable and convenienttransportationservicescomparabletothatavailablealongthewestcoast.

Public and Commercial VehiclesPrivate companies, some of which

offer round-the-clock service, providelong-distance transportation services. In2010, over 7,400 highway buses servednearly234millionpassengers.For inter-citytravel,about6,700publicandprivatecitybusesserved811millionpassengers.Some13,000tourbuseswereoperatedby900companies.

Dedicated bus lanes on major roadsin Taipei City 臺北市 have helped ease


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traffic congestion. City buses islandwideaccept coins dropped in fare boxes, butpassengersintheTaipeiandKeelung基隆areasalsohavetheoptionofpayingwiththeEasyCard悠遊卡,asmartcardinitiallydesignedfortheTaipeiMetro臺北捷運.

Taiwanhadover87,400taxisin2010,morethanhalfofwhichwereoperatedbytaxi companies and cooperatives. Set bylocalgovernments,taxifaresvaryslightlyfrom locale to locale. Meanwhile, carrental is on the rise as more city dwell-ersprefertorentvehiclesforvacation.In2010, some 1,200 rental car businesseswereoperatinginTaiwan.

Personal TransportationAt the end of 2010, the number of

privately owned four-wheel vehicles inTaiwan registered a slight increase fromthe previous year, totaling 6.9 million.Amongthetwo-wheeledvariety,scootersarethemostpopularmethodoftransport,numbering 14.8 million. Most express-ways are open to motorcycles havingengine displacement of 550 cc or more,which numbered over 23,300 at the endof2010.

RailwaysTaiwanhasapublicrailwaysystemas

wellasaprivatelyrunhigh-speedrailwayservice in which the government is thelargestshareholder.TheTaiwanRailwaysAdministration (TRA) 臺灣鐵路管理局 oftheMinistryofTransportationandCom-munications (MOTC) provides servicebetween217stations.Itsoperatingroutes,about 61.6 percent of which utilizedouble-track lines, total approximately1,100 kilometers in length. While anexpanding road network has for severalyearsledtodecreasingvolumeoffreighttransported via rail, in 2010 the volumeof railway freight rose 8.9 percent overthepreviousyear to10.4million tonnes,

the first positive growth in four years.Railpassengerservices,meanwhile,havesteadily grown, with the average dailynumber of passengers reaching 520,000in 2010, an increase of 5.8 percent overthepreviousyear.

The TRA offers passenger servicesrangingfromlong-distanceexpresstrainsthat stop only at major stations to long-distance and local commuter trains thatstop at all stations. The latter two typescarry about three-fourths of all passen-gers. The volume carried by the fastesttrains—17percentofTRApassengers in2010—hasdeclinedinrecentyearsastrav-elers increasingly utilize the high-speedrail service.TheTRAisalso focusingonprovidingbetterservicetopassengersonshorter routes with new stops and newcarsbeingadded to improvecommuters’travelexperience.In2010,itstrainsmadeanaverage963tripsperday.


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In May 2007, the TRA launched theeastern coastal Taroko Express 太魯閣號列

車,whichemploysatiltingtechnologythatallowsit tonegotiatebendsathighspeeds.ThishasreducedtraveltimefromTaipeitoHualien from 2.5 hours to just under twohours. In 2010, the number of passengersarrivingatanddepartingfromHualienandTaitung stations—two of the most popularstations along the route—increased by 9.4and16.4percent,respectively.

Meanwhile, projects are underway tomodernize sections of existing railwaysand to build new rapid transit commuterrailways in connecting urban and outly-ing areas. Construction and electrificationof 155 kilometers of double-track railsbetween Hualien and Taitung countiesalongtheeastcoastbeganin2008andwillbe completed by 2013. In southwesternTaiwan’sKaohsiungCity高雄市,railtrackswillbemovedunderground,whileanunder-groundrailwaystationwillreplacetheexist-ingstationby2017.Andaproject tobuildanelevatedrapidtransitrailwayinTaichungCity臺中市thatbeganin2006isscheduledforcompletionin2014.

High-speed RailThe high-speed rail, run by Taiwan

High Speed Rail Corp. (THSR) 台灣高速

鐵路股份有限公司, commenced operationsinJanuary2007.ItismodeledonJapan’sShinkansen system, with “bullet trains”custom-madebyKawasakiHeavyIndus-tries, Ltd. to withstand Taiwan’s hotter,morehumidclimate.

The 345-kilometer railway systemcurrently serves eight stations (Taipei,Banqiao 板橋, Taoyuan 桃園, Hsinchu 新

竹,Taichung,Chiayi嘉義,Tainan臺南andZuoying左營).THSRtrainscan travelatspeedsofup to300kilometersperhour,which has reduced travel time betweenTaipei and Kaohsiung from over fourhours to just96minutes.Construction isunderway for a station at Taipei City’s

Nangang District 南港區, with openingexpectedin2015.Additionalstationsareplanned for Miaoli County 苗栗縣 in thenorth and Changhua County 彰化縣 andYunlinCounty雲林縣incentralTaiwan.

In 2010, THSR trains made 46,960trips, averaging 64 daily in each direc-tion with a 99.2-percent punctuality rate(notexceedingfiveminutes indelay). Inthatyear,theytransportednearly37mil-lionpassengers,oranaverageof101,200passengers per day, up from 26,000 atthebeginningofoperationsand14.2per-cent higher than in2009.Tickets canbebookedbytelephoneoronline,orcanbepurchasedatmostconveniencestores.

Metro ServicesTheTaipei RapidTransit System 臺北

大眾捷運系統, or Taipei Metro, has greatlyalleviated traffic congestion and parkingproblems in metropolitan Taipei. Con-struction began in 1988, and currentlynine lines and one extension totaling106.4 kilometers with 94 stations are inoperation. The newest Luzhou Line 蘆州

線 beganservingpassengersonNovember3, 2010, and the eastern extension of theNangang Line 南港線 was completed onFebruary 27, 2011. Two more extensionsandsixlines, includingoneconnectingtoTaiwanTaoyuanInternationalAirport臺灣

桃園國際機場,arenowunderconstruction.The system was rated the most reli-

ableintheworldforfiveconsecutiveyearsfrom 2004 to 2008 by the Nova UrbanRailway Benchmarking Group and theCommunity of Metros International Rail-way Benchmarking Group. The TaipeiMetrocurrentlyservesmorethan1.5mil-lionpassengersonaverageperweekday.

TheKaohsiungRapidTransitSystem高雄捷運, or Kaohsiung Metro, beganoperations in September 2008. ServingTaiwan’s second-most populous city, thesystemspansabout43kilometersandhas37stationsontwolines.Itislinkedtothe


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The 345-kilometer-long high-speed railway system—in operation since January 5, 2007—currently serves eight stations along its route. It has reduced travel time between Taipei in the north and Kaohsiung in the south from over four hours to just 96 minutes.

THSR and TRA railways as well as thecitybussystemtoformacomprehensivepublic transportation network.As of theendof2010,thenumberoftripsmadebyKaohsiungMetrocommutershadrisento46 million (126,000 per day), while thenumberofpassengersgrewby6.2percentoverthepreviousyear.

Constructionofarapidtransitsystemin Taichung City was launched in Octo-ber 2009. Of its three routes, the Wuri-Wenxin-BeitunLine烏日文心北屯線(orGreenLine), running through the city from thenortheast to the THSR Taichung Stationinthesouthwest,isexpectedtocomeintoserviceby2015.

Maritime Shipping and PortsIn 2010, the nation’s shipping fleet

consisted of 278 vessels with a combinedtonnageof2.78milliongrosstons(4.4mil-liondeadweighttons).Amonginternationalcarriers, Evergreen Marine 長榮海運, YangMingMarine陽明海運 andWanHaiLines萬海航運providedcontainertransportservices,whileChinaSteelExpress中鋼運通,U-Ming

Marine裕民航運andTa-HoMaritime達和航

運offeredbulkfreightservices.Taiwan has seven international harbor

facilities under the management of theMOTC. The four largest—Port of Kao-hsiung高雄港inthesouth,PortofKeelung基隆港andPortofTaipei臺北港inthenorth,andTaichungPort臺中港on thewestcen-tral coast—handle container shipping.Theremaining three—Tainan City’s AnpingPort 安平港 a bit north of Kaohsiung, Su-aoPort蘇澳港inthenortheastandHualienPort花蓮港 ineastcentralTaiwan—handlebulkandbreak-bulkcargo.

In2010,nearly74,600shipsdockedatthese seven ports, through which passeda total of 12.7 million TEUs (20-footequivalentunits).ThePortofKaohsiunghandled 9.2 million TEUs, followedby the Port of Keelung at 1.8 million,TaichungPort at 1.3million andPort ofTaipeiatover400,000.Intermsofreve-nuetons,Kaohsiung,Keelung,TaipeiandTaichung ports that year posted growthsof 6.5 percent, 9.6 percent, 15.2 percentand20percent,respectively.


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Free Trade Zones at International Ports

The MOTC has established free trade zones (FTZs) atTaiwanTaoyuan InternationalAirport and the five international port facilities of Keelung, Su-ao,Taipei,Taichung andKaohsiung.Hosting105enterprisesasoftheendof2010,theseFTZsregisteredtotaltradevalueofUS$8.9billioninthatyear,upby97percentfrom2009.GoodstransitingthroughtheairportFTZalone,consistingmainlyofhighvalue-addedelectronicproducts,amountedtoUS$5.2billion,or60percentoftotalFTZtrade.

OtherFTZsalsoperformedoutstandinglyin2010.ThevalueofFTZtradeatthePortofTaipeijumped252percent,whilethoseatTaichungPortandthePortofKaohsiunggrewby172percentand96percent,respectively.

The first phase of a new interconti-nental container terminal at the Port ofKaohsiungbecameoperationalinJanuary2011.The Port ofTaipei, which becamean international port in 1999 and onlyrecently began serving container shipsinFebruary2009,has thenation’s third-largest maritime shipping facilities afterthose of Kaohsiung and Taichung ports.Its Construction Phase II is slated forcompletion in2011, tobe followedbyathirdphasetobefinishedin2021.

In 2006, the MOTC launched theonline MTNet—the Maritime TransportNetwork Portal 航港單一窗口服務平台. Ithas improved operating efficiency con-siderably at Taiwan’s harbors, enablingshipping and container terminal servicecompaniestocompletecustomsandotherregistrationandapplicationproceduresandtoaccessshippingdatawithgreaterease.

In November 2008, Taiwan’s StraitsExchangeFoundation(SEF)海峽交流基金會andmainlandChina’sAssociationforRe-lationsAcrosstheTaiwanStraits(ARATS)海峽兩岸關係協會 reached an agreement onopening direct shipping links, no longerrequiring ships to detour via other coun-tries’ ports (see Chapter 6, “Cross-straitRelations”). Taiwan has since opened 12ports to direct cross-strait shipping whilethe mainland has reciprocated with 68,significantly reducing transportation timeand costs. In addition to cargo, vessels

sailingthestraitalsotransporttouristsfrommainland China, normally docking in theports of Keelung,Taichung or Kaohsiung.In 2010, more than 87,000 mainland visi-torscamethroughtheseports.

Civil AviationAs of December 2010, 45 airlines

providedflightstodestinationsinTaiwan.Ofthesefirms,38wereforeignandsevendomestic. The number of passengersserved at Taiwan’s airports (includingarrivals, departures and transits) in 2010grew14.8percentoverthepreviousyearto 39.5 million. Of this number, inter-national flight passengers accounted forthe largest share at 29.7 million, an in-creaseof18.2percentover2009.AmongTaiwan-basedairlinesonly,thenumberofinternationalflight passengers alsogrew,rising16percentto20.6million.

Increasing competition from groundtransportation networks—particularlythehigh-speedrail—hastakena tollonthedomestic air transport business, with thenumber of passengers on domestic flightsdroppingby44percentbetween2006and2010. However, the volume of domesticflightpassengerssawarevivalof5.4per-cent to reach 9.7 million in 2010, afterthreeconsecutiveyearsofnegativegrowth.

Air cargo shipmentvolume in2010increased 29 percent over the previous


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Enhancing Taiwan’s Transportation Infrastructure

Anumberofthei-Taiwan12Projects 愛臺十二建設launchedin2008focusonmodernizingthe nation’s transportation infrastructure.These include the construction and integration ofmetroandrailsystemsintoawell-meshednationwiderapidtransitnetwork;upgradingofthePortofKaohsiung;andprojects inconnectionwith thecreationofaTaoyuanInternationalAirportCity 桃園國際航空城 centeredonTaiwanTaoyuanInternationalAirport(TTIA).

A projected total of nearly US$38 billion, with over 6 percent expected to come fromtheprivatesector,willbe invested in the islandwiderapid transitproject.This includes theconstructionof rapid transit systems in threemajormetropolitanareas;gradeseparationofrailroadspassing throughurbanareas (movingground-level railroads toelevatedstructuresorunderground); railwayelectrificationand layingofanadditionalparallel track ineasternTaiwan;andintegrationofnationalfreewaysandregionalhighways.

Asbutoneaspectofamuchlarger-scalePortofKaohsiungrejuvenationprogram,aboutUS$1.25billion,over40percentfromprivatesources,willbespentonconstructionofanewintercontinentalcontainerterminalandimprovementoftransportationtoandfromtheport.

TTIA and surrounding areas are being developed into an international airport city, or“aerotropolis,” tobeoperatedasanadministrativelyautonomouscommunityunder the su-pervisionoftheMOTC.Thatincludesafreetradezone,logisticalsupport,internationalcon-ferencecenters,hotelsandotherfacilities.ProjectsdirectlyinvolvingtransportationincludereconstructionofTerminal1;constructionofanewTerminal3andnewrunway;andcon-structionofnewroads.OverallinitialinfrastructureinvestmentissetataboutUS$9.3billion,withabout22percentcomingfromprivateinvestors.

year to 1.9 million tonnes, 98 percentof which were international shipments(including transit cargo). The volume ofdomestic air cargo shipping, however,droppedby0.7percent in2010.Thedo-mestic aviation industry has been focus-ing its efforts on opening internationalroutesandimprovingairportfacilities.

In line with agreements reached be-tween the SEF and the ARATS, directcross-strait charter flights commencedin July 2008 with weekend service,which was expanded to daily servicein December that year. Carriers of bothsidesthereaftercouldflydirectlytotheirdestinations without detouring throughHongKong’sairspace.

InApril2009,theSEFandtheARATSsigned a supplementary agreement onscheduledflightsbetweenTaiwan’sair-portsandthoseinmainlandChina.Asaresult, twonewcross-straitrouteswerecommissioned in July 2009. In 2010,

the number of round-trip passengerflightsbetween33airports inmainlandChina and eight in Taiwan rose from270to370perweek,whilethenumberofcargoflightsbetweensixdestinationson themainlandand two inTaiwan in-creasedfrom28to48weekly.InMarch2011,fournewdestinationsinmainlandChinabeganreceivingdirectpassengerflights from Taiwan, bringing the totalnumber to 37. Three months later, thetwosidesagreedtofurtherincreasethenumber of direct flights to more than550perweek.

AirportsTaiwancurrentlyhasthreeinternation-

alairports:TTIA,KaohsiungInternationalAirport高雄國際航空站andTaipeiInterna-tional Airport 臺北國際航空站 (SongshanAirport). TTIA, now run by TaoyuanInternational Airport Corp. Ltd. 桃園

國際機場股份有限公司, has two passenger


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terminals with a total annual handlingcapacity of 25 million passengers. Thestate-owned corporation was formallyestablished on November 1, 2010 undertheauspicesoftheMOTC.Arapidtransitrail connecting the airport with TaipeiCityisscheduledforcompletionby2014.Kaohsiung InternationalAirport has twopassenger terminals that served 4.1 mil-lion international and domestic passen-gersin2010andisconnectedtothecityviatheKaohsiungMetro.

As part of a plan to link Taipei In-ternational Airport in downtown TaipeiCitywithairportselsewhereinAsiathatare close to major cities, direct flightsto Shanghai Hongqiao InternationalAirport 上海虹橋國際機場 were launchedon June 14, 2010, with 14 flights origi-nating fromeachsideperweek.Flightsto Tokyo International Airport (HanedaAirport) were inaugurated on October31. In 2010Taipei InternationalAirporthandled 3.7 million international anddomesticpassengers.

OfTaiwan’s14domesticairports,sixare located on Taiwan proper (Tainan,Taichung and Taitung cities; Chiayi andHualiencounties;andPingtungCounty’s屏東縣 Hengchun Township 恆春鎮), andeight on offshore islands (three on thePenghu Islands 澎湖群島, two on theMatsu Islands 馬祖列島, and one each onOrchidIsland蘭嶼,GreenIsland綠島andGreaterKinmen大金門).

e-Traffic InformationThe MOTC’s Institute of Transpor-

tation (IOT) 交通部運輸研究所 operatesa Chinese-English bilingual website(http://e-iot.iot.gov.tw) that displays cur-rent traffic conditions around Taiwan,enabling drivers to avoid traffic jamsand find alternative routes. In addition,visitorstothewebsitecanobtaininforma-tiononthefares,timetablesandroutesof

long-distance coaches,TRA trains, high-speedtrains,flightsandboatsplyingwa-tersbetweenTaiwanproperanditssisterislands.Also available on the website isinformationoncitybuses,intercitybusesand rapid transit systems in Taiwan’svariousurbanareas.

With assistance from the IOT, e-bussystemshavebeensetupin11citiesandcounties throughout Taiwan. They relyon GPS (global positioning system) andGPRS(generalpacketradioservice)tech-nologytorelayinformationfrombusestocontrol centers, which report their posi-tionsandanticipatedarrival timesonlineand transmit themtodisplaymonitorsatbusstops.

TheMOTCisalsoworkingtodevelop“intelligent” transportation and freight-handling management systems thatintegrate and automate ticketing, cargotransferandothertasks.

Postal Services ChunghwaPostCo.,Ltd.中華郵政股份

有限公司operatesthebulkofthenation’spostal services. As of 2010, this state-owned company operated 23 main postoffices, three mail-processing centersand1,321branchoffices.Therewereanadditional 1,252 Chunghwa-authorizedpostalandstampsalesagents.

In2010,ChunghwaPosthandled2.7billion letters, 6.2 million pieces of ex-pressmailand26.4millionparcels.Let-tervolume roseby3.9percentover thepreviousyear,buttheexpressmailfigurewas down 4 percent over 2009, whileparcelshipmentsrose3.9percent.Directpostal services betweenTaiwan and theChinesemainlandwerelaunchedinDe-cember 2008. Chunghwa Post in 2010processed8.3millionletters,95,900par-celsand395,500piecesofexpressmailsentacrosstheTaiwanStrait.


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A sign at a Taipei rapid transit station advertises a WiFly hot spot access point. The city’s extensive wireless network shows Taipei’s ambitious plan to turn itself into an international technology hub.

TelecommunicationsTaiwan’s telecommunications market

has developed at a rapid pace since lib-eralization measures were adopted in themid-1990swith theaimofexpediting theupgrading of telecommunications infra-structure.Since1996,afterwhichmobile,satellite and fixed-line communicationservices were gradually opened to theprivatesector,revenuesfromtelecomserv-icesgrew132percenttoUS$12billionin2010.Overthisperiod,mobilephoneserv-ices’ share of telecom revenues increasedfrom13to59percent.

Like many other developed nations,Taiwan’s mobile phone market faces over-saturationasthepenetrationratereached100percentinearly2002andclimbedfurtherto120 percent in 2010. The market’s limitedsize has led to fierce competition amongnetworkoperatorsastheyvietoexpandtheirmarketsharesthroughbetterservices,thelat-estequipmentandcompetitivepricing.

Major Service ProvidersFixed-line telecommunications serv-

ices, once monopolized by the formerly

state-run Chunghwa Telecom 中華電信,are now also available from three pri-vate operators: Taiwan Mobile 台灣大哥

大, New Century InfoCommTech 新世紀

資通 and Asia Pacific Telecom 亞太電信.Local fixed-line telephone subscribersnumbered 12.9 million in 2011, repre-sentingadecreaseofmorethan1percentover 2010. Although Chunghwa Tele-commaintaineditsholdonthedomesticfixed-line market in 2011, serving 95.6percent of total subscribers, it no longerhas a dominant position in internationaltelephoneservices.

In2007,thenumberofmobilephonesinuseexceededthenumberoffixed-linetelephones for thefirst time.Taiwanhasthree second-generation (2G) and fivethird-generation (3G) mobile phone andsix wireless broadband access (WBA)carriers,with3GandWBAbecomingin-creasingly popular. WBA carriers beganto provide service in July 2010 and hadover 54,200 users by February 2011.Attheendof2010, therewere18.7million3G mobile phone subscribers and 8.2million 2G users. Chunghwa Telecomleadsthemobilephonemarket,followed


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l Ministry of Transportation and Communications: http://www.motc.gov.twl Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau: http://www.freeway.gov.twl Taiwan Railways Administration: http://www.railway.gov.twl Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp.: http://www.thsrc.com.twl Taipei Rapid Transit Corp.: http://www.trtc.com.twl Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp.: http://www.krtco.com.twl Civil Aeronautics Administration: http://www.caa.gov.twl Maritime Transport Network Portal: http://www.mtnet.gov.twl National Communications Commission: http://www.ncc.gov.tw

Related

Websites

byTaiwanMobileandFarEasToneTele-communications遠傳電信.

Wireless Digital TelevisionTowardthegoalofphasingoutanalog

television in favor of digital, six digitalgapfillersweresetupasof2010 to im-prove signal transmission in rural andmountainousareasofYilan,Nantou南投,ChiayiandPingtungcountiesandinpartsofKaohsiungCity.

The InternetThe public and private sectors have

been quick to embrace new Internettechnologies, establishing Taiwan asone of the best-wired nations in theAsia-Pacificregion.IntheNetworkedReadinessIndex of the World Economic Forum’sGlobal Information Technology Re-port 2010-2011, Taiwan moved up fiveplaces to No. 6 out of the 138 econo-mies surveyed. It alsoplacedwell in the

Economist Intelligence Unit’s Digital Economy Rankings 2010.Risingfourslotsover the previous year to 12th globally,Taiwan was praised for having “investedheavily in the next generation of Inter-netinfrastructure.”

According to the state-sponsored In-stitute for Information Industry 資訊工業

策進會—Taiwan’s main public promoterof the information and communicationstechnology industry—the household In-ternetpenetrationrate inTaiwanreached82.8 percent in 2010, up 4.1 percentagepointsfromthepreviousyear.Thehouse-hold broadband penetration rate also in-creased,by3.2percentagepointsto77.1percent.BroadbandInternetsubscriptions(mobile and fixed) stood at 21.8 millionat the end of 2010.Among these, some4.3 million were xDSL, 927,600 cablemodem, 19,000 leased lines and 46,600publicwireless local areanetworkusers.Mobile network accounts, meanwhile,reached16.5million.


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