《TAIPEI TIMES》 Telecom reform could allow Starlink

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Starlink satellites is seen over Sebastian Inlet after launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Feb. 26 last year. Photo: Reuters

CAUTIOUS APPROACH: Musk’s comments that Taiwan should become part of China have caused national security fears should Starlink be introduced to the network

/ Staff writer, with AFP Lawmakers are set to approve changes to a law that would open the door for Starlink to operate its satellite Internet services.

Chunghwa Telecom has struck deals with several foreign satellite companies, including European firm Eutelsat, to provide back-up telecommunications in case of war or natural disaster, but Elon Musk’s Starlink, which dominates the global satellite communications sector, is not among them.

Legal requirements for telecoms operators to have a Taiwanese chairperson and foreign ownership caps of 49 percent have deterred the firm from entering Taiwan’s market, lawmakers said.

To boost the resiliency of phone and Internet services, lawmakers want to amend the Telecommunications Management Act （電信管理法） to allow a case-by-case review process that could exempt companies, such as Starlink, from these rules.

“To put it bluntly, if a cross-strait conflict was to break out and the Chinese Communist Party cut all of Taiwan’s submarine cables... Taiwan would have virtually no means of communicating with the outside world,” Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） Legislator Huang Chien-hao （黃健豪） said.

“We’ve also seen in the recent wars, including the Iran-US war, the war between Ukraine and Russia, and during the initial unrest in Iran, much of the information the outside world received was transmitted through Starlink satellite,” he said.

The proposed changes have already been approved by a legislative committee, with the support of the opposition KMT and Taiwan People’s Party — which have a majority in the Legislative Yuan — as well as the Democratic Progressive Party （DPP）.

“Our goal is to have diversified satellite services,” KMT Legislator Ko Ju-chun （葛如鈞） said.

“Taiwan should be able to connect to any satellite constellation because Taiwan is a place that most needs sufficient Internet connectivity to ensure our safety, communications security and national security,” he said.

Authorities have already seen what happens when subsea cables are disconnected.

In February 2023, two telecoms lines serving the outlying Matsu archipelago were severed, disrupting communications for weeks.

Taiwan has also learned lessons from Ukraine, where Starlink has been a vital communications tool for the country’s forces fighting Russia’s troops.

However, some are wary of relying too heavily on Starlink after Musk admitted blocking a Ukraine attack on Russian warships by turning off Internet access to the system.

Musk’s business ties with China and his previous comments that Taiwan should become part of China have also sparked anger.

The government would need to strike agreements with Starlink to ensure its communications services continued operating “during disasters or emergencies,” Huang said.

“The purpose of these amendments is to equip the government with the tools to introduce greater communications backup capacity, provided that national security requirements are fully met,” DPP Legislator Lin Chun-hsien （林俊憲） said.

However, even with the changes, it is unclear if Starlink would be interested in making its satellite service available to Taiwan.

Cathy Fang （方怡然）, a policy analyst at the government-backed Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology, said telecom operators faced other barriers to entering Taiwan.

“Operators would still need to address spectrum access, ground infrastructure, terminal deployment, cybersecurity and data-governance requirements, market size, and commercial viability,” Fang said.

Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-jing （林宜敬） on Monday said that Starlink had previously indicated to the government that its interest in the Taiwan market was “not particularly high.”

Nevertheless, Chunghwa Telecom chairman Alex Chien （簡志誠） on Tuesday said that the company was open to becoming Starlink’s “exclusive agent” or forming a joint venture.

“We’re not ruling anything out. It depends on the other party,” he said.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES