電信產業改革與普及服務制度：日本與台灣的比較分析

Abstract

日本和台灣先後在八○年代中期和九○年代中期進行電信產業改革。為了避免改革過程中所造成離島或偏遠等不經濟地區，因需求量少或建設費用偏高，願意提供服務的業者也少，而產生費率調漲或不提供服務的弊病。因此，日本和台灣在進行電信產業自由化與民營化的同時，也設計保障普及服務供給之機制。\\r有關普及服務的範圍方面，無論日本或台灣目前都處於再檢討的變動狀態，兩國在微觀普及服務的供給都呈現縮減的趨勢，且都尚未擴大到網際網路服務、低所得與殘障用戶服務等宏觀普及服務項目。另外，日本和台灣在保障普及服務供給上也同樣採用「公共性內部化」的做法，初期以法令強制規定民營化業者提供普及服務，由業者自行吸收成本，二○○二年以後則改以「普及服務基金」來支付。但不同的是，相較於我國是由產業利益者共同分攤普及服務供給之經費，日本雖也是由相關電信業者共同負擔基金費用，卻規定除非虧損超過整體營收，否則無法獲得補貼，造成該制度設立至今，僅形式存在，而尚未正式發放，也無法對業者形成誘因之問題。

There was telecommunication industry reform in Japan and Taiwan during mid-1990s and mid-2000. The reform process resulted in the disadvantages of rate increase or no service offered since there were fewer service providers due to low demand or higher construction cost in offshore island or non-economical area. In order to avoid such problems, a mechanism to uarantee universal service supply was designated at the same time telecommunication liberalization and privatization proceeded in Japan and Taiwan. Concerning the scope of universal service, regardless in Japan or Taiwan, it is currently in a changing status of review; there is a trend of scaling down in the micro- universal service supply in both countries and not yet expanding to the macro-universal services including Internet service, low-income and physically challenged subscriber service. In addition, the practice of “publicness internalization” is adopted for the guarantee of universal service supply in Japan and Taiwan. In the initial stage, businesses were regulated by mandatory laws to provide universal service with cost absorbed; after 2002, the cost is paid by “universal service fund”. Comparing with the situation in Taiwan where universal service fund is commonly shared among businesses, in Japan telecommunication industry commonly share the fund only when the loss exceeds the entire revenue; otherwise, they will not get subsidy, which causing the system only exists in formality and not yet officially granted. This is also the reason of a problem that it has not become an incentive to businesses.