Taiwan Communications - 2024

Telephones - fixed lines

total subscriptions: 10 million (2023 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 43 (2023 est.)

Telephones - mobile cellular

total subscriptions: 30 million (2023 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 128 (2023 est.)

Telecommunication systems

general assessment: Taiwan has a highly developed telecoms sector in both the fixed-line and mobile segments; in part this is due to its early moves to liberalize the market, allowing vigorous competition to flourish; the Taiwan authorities have also made concerted efforts to take advantage of Taiwan’s strengths in the development of high-tech, export-oriented industries to encourage and enable the rapid adoption of advanced telecom platforms, while simultaneously leveraging the same telecoms infrastructure to push even further ahead with Taiwan's industrial development plans; Taiwan has one of the highest teledensities in the region; while fixed-line subscriber numbers are trending downwards, the rate of decline has been slowed by the major fixed-line provider investing strongly in building out a widespread fiber network to allow customers to maintain a terrestrial voice connection as part of a fixed broadband package; fiber is the dominant platform in Taiwan’s fixed broadband market; cable services have retained an unusually strong following thanks to the success of cable providers in delivering competitive cable TV and telephony services as a way to get around Chunghwa Telecom’s control of the last mile for its copper and fiber networks; Taiwan also has high penetration rates in its mobile and mobile broadband segments, growth in both markets is almost at a standstill because Taiwan reached 100% penetration very early on – way back when GSM was first introduced, in mobile’s case; the MNOs moved quickly to roll out 4G and 5G networks and services in rapid succession, but subscriber numbers (and market share) has barely changed; the improved quality and performance available with the new platforms will drive increased usage and ARPU; fierce competition following the launch of 4G saw the opposite happen, with price wars causing telco revenues to fall instead; Taiwan’s 5G penetration rate reached 25 percent in October 2023, ranked 5th around the world now; Taiwan’s 5G roll-out plan faces challenges as subscribers enjoy 4G unlimited data flow tariff and yet to see a killer app in the 5G world

(2023)

domestic: fixed-line over 43 per 100 and mobile-cellular roughly 128 per 100 (2023)

international: country code - 886; landing points for the EAC-C2C, APCN-2, FASTER, SJC2, TSE-1, TPE, APG, SeaMeWe-3, FLAG North Asia Loop/REACH North Asia Loop, HKA, NCP, and PLCN submarine fiber cables provide links throughout Asia, Australia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa and the US; satellite earth stations - 2 (2019)

Broadcast media

5 nationwide television networks operating roughly 22 TV stations; more than 300 satellite TV channels are available; about 51% of households utilize multi-channel cable TV; 99.9% of households subscribe to digital cable TV; national and regional radio networks with about 171 radio stations (2023)

Internet country code

.tw

Internet users

total: 21.6 million (2021 est.)

percent of population: 90% (2021 est.)

Broadband - fixed subscriptions

total: 5,831,470 (2019 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 25 (2019 est.)