Bridging the Digital Divide

Upholding to the attributes of ICT industry, Chunghwa Telecom commits its professional core competencies to “bridging the digital divide.” Leveraging the “ICT power,” it cares for the underprivileged groups, goes into communities in the rural areas and indigenous tribes, and establishes “Good Digital Neighbors.” In addition to the installation of digital equipment and provision of broadband resources, it further introduces social resources and corporate volunteering services to the living, learning, and industrial facets of communities. Replicate Taiwan’s successful “Smart solutions” of mobile communications to Southeast Asian countries, and help them bridge digital divide. Furthermore, we assist Tuvalu and Palau to improve and upgrade their mobile networks, both countries people enjoy high-quality of mobile networks.

Strategies and Results of Digital Inclusion at Chunghwa Telecom

Strategy	Project	Results of the Year
Bridge the Digital Divide	Chunghwa Telecom Foundation “Good Digital Neighbor”	89 sites of Digital Good Neighbor across the country
	An annual investment of NT$590 million in universal telecom services	Phone service for over 250,000 households in the 87 “remote areas” and 8 “areas considered as remote areas” nationwide” Data communication service for approximately 130,000 households in the rural areas Data communication access service for over 600 elementary/junior high schools and public libraries Services of over 20,000 public telephones in 22 counties/cities across the country
	Inclusive Services	Inclusive Services for Persons with Disabilities, Low-Income Households, and Senior Citizens
	Equipment supports for major events	Broadband circuit, MOD platform promotion, mobile base station vehicles, SMS push message service, Wi-Fi AP, and temporary data circuit
Create Digital Opportunities	Chunghwa Telecom Foundation “Click Taiwan” Program	“Click Taiwan” has been running for 14 years, mobilized students from 28 departments in 17 universities to engage in hands-on service and documentation in 22 communities across Taiwan in 2023. Over 44 college students utilized their professional skills to capture the diverse landscapes and lifestyles of these communities. To bridge cultural divides, the program organized the 2023 Click Taiwan: Southbound “Next Generation Chat Room" online workshop. Through dialogues with new generation leaders, the program aimed to broaden public understanding of the new immigrant groups and foster community integration.
	The CHT Digital Innovative Application Series	The CHT Digital Innovative Application Series, organized for 21 consecutive years to promote innovative digital development in Taiwan
	Education/Network Tutoring	iPhone usage training courses for the visually impaired held regularly to help the visually impaired individuals to learn to use smartphones and connect to the digital lifestyle
	Assistance in application development / employment	Up to 3.68 million views of App for the Visually Impaired since 2013 EYE Social Innovative Call Center established, where the visually impaired can work as customer service personnel and earn wages on their own

Preferential Subsidies for the Underprivileged Groups

Chunghwa Telecom has been offering telecom service discounts to the underprivileged groups for them to access the basic right to communication.

Preferential Plan	Preferential Offering
Caring Series Rate Plan (Mobile)	For the visually impaired, hearing impaired, and speech impaired: Free credits worth the same as the monthly rate plan available For the hearing impaired and the speech impaired: 300 SMS intra-network and 100 SMS extra-network for free, and the intra-network videotelephony rate at the same rate as that of the voice service for 3G customers
Broadband Preferential Plan for Low-income Households	A 50% off for HiNet FTTx 16M/3M, 35M/6M, 60M/20M, and 100M/40M monthly plan, and for ADSL 2M/64K monthly plan
4G Mobile Data Plan for the Disabled	A NT$100 discount for the 4G 399/436/499 plans, NT$200 discounts for the 599 plan or above, and free CHT Wi-Fi service during the contract term
Heartwarming Plan	Exclusive discounts for cellphone purchase and SIM-only plans, along with a NT$100-200 discount for the monthly plans （subject to the plan selected）. Free CHT Wi-Fi service, free extra data or unlimited data (subject to the plan selected), add-ons, and extra talk time, etc.
Broadband Preferential Plan for the Disabled	A 5% off for HiNet FTTx 16M/3M, 35M/6M, 60M/20M, and 100M/40M monthly plan; a 30% off for HiNet non-fixed monthly plan A 15% off for ADSL 5M /384K monthly rate; a NT$149 discount for the non-fixed Internet plan
MOD Caring Plan and the Low-income Household Plan	Platform charges: A 50% off discount（NT$45/month）from the date of work completion date A 30% off discount for subscription to relevant annual plans
Healthy Net Preferential Plan	Free of charge for the low-income households in the first year for HiNet Porn Gatekeeper to protect children from harmful websites such as pornography, violence, suicide, weapons, gambling, and drugs
Welfare Public Telephone	Public telephones installed at 110 cm high from the floor in public areas for the convenience of the disabled A bump on the key “5” for all the public phone keypads for the ease of the visually impaired; the volume boost button for +3db to +6db available to individuals with hearing aids A friendly dented design around the IC card of public telephone for the convenience of the visually impaired
Message Relay Service for the Hearing and Speech Impaired	The hearing-/speech-impaired individuals may fax the message content to be sent to the recipient to the hearing-/speech-impaired service hotline at 0800-080885 for the service to orally relay the message to the recipient, and vice versa. The service hours are 08:00~21:00 every day.

Bridging the Digital Divide

Universal Service