Congress approves appointment of new NCC commissioners - International Law Office

On July 26 2012 the Legislative Yuan organised a special session to approve the four new commissioners of the National Communications Commission (NCC) nominated by the premier. Although all legislators from the opposition parties and some ruling party legislators voted against the nominees, all four – Chairperson Shih Shih-hou, Vice Chairperson Yu Hsiao-cheng and Commissioners Peng Hsin-yi and Chen Yuan-ling – still received a majority of the votes and took office on August 1.

Pursuant to the Organic Law of the National Communications Commission, the NCC commissioners are nominated by the premier and approved by the Legislative Yuan. The tenure of the four new NCC commissioners should be from August 1 2012 to July 31 2016.

However, on the day before the legislative approval of the new commissioners, the seven incumbent NCC commissioners decided during their last regular commissioners' meeting on several controversial proposals which have attracted much attention. Among the proposals, the NCC adopted draft amendments which will greatly revamp the Telecommunications Act and will compel Chunghwa Telecom to free up the 'last mile' of its fixed networks. After the legislative procedure for the amendments has been completed at the Legislative Yuan, Chunghwa Telecom can be compelled to conduct functional separation.

Chunghwa Telecom immediately voiced strong opposition, on the ground that this measure will inappropriately encourage other competitive telecommunications operators to take advantage of Chunghwa Telecom and hinder new telecommunications infrastructure development in Taiwan.

For further information on this topic please contact Arthur Shay or David CL Yeh at Shay & Partners by telephone (+886 2 8773 3600), fax (+886 2 8773 3611) or email (arthur@elitelaw.com or davidyeh@elitelaw.com).