ADSL費率結構之分析－以台灣、日本、新加坡、澳洲爲例

台灣的寬頻用戶在政府推動及業者競爭下逐年上升，目前的寬頻人口普及率為全球第六名，但是過去卻少有人關注寬頻價格的相關問題。直到最近，台灣的學生在一次會談中，當面對總統表示中華電信所提供的ADSL費率過高，引起了外界對ADSL費率的熱烈討論。雖然在政府和外界輿論的壓力之下，中華電信宣布調降ADSL費率，但是台灣目前的ADSL費率結構與國外有何不同，仍需進一步研究。因此本研究比較台灣HiNet、日本Yahoo! BB、新加坡SingNet和澳洲BigPond目前所提供的費率結構對寬頻需求的影響，以及寬頻價格的可負擔性。整體而言，HiNet與yahoo! BB的定價方式相似，均只提供單一費率(flat-rate)，但是Yahoo! BB使用者的負擔比HiNet低。而SingNet與BigPond在混合單一費率與測量使用量(volume-based Pricing)定價方式下，給予使用者較多的選擇，因此降低了使用寬頻的門檻，也減少了輕度使用者的不公平現象。經過比較分析之後，本研究認為台灣的寬頻服務提供者HiNet仍然有許多可思改進的地方，提供的建議如下：1．訂定合適的單一費率，2．搭配其他的服務以吸引使用者，3．豐富網路內容。

關鍵字

ADSL費率；寬頻價格；費率結構

並列摘要

Broadband subscribers in Taiwan are increasing in recent years due to the governmental policy and decreasing prices as a result of flourishing competition. As for the broadband penetration in 2004, Taiwan is the sixth country in the world, followed by Switzerland, Belgium, Japan. However, the issues of broadband prices are seldom noticed. Not until the April of 2004, did students react to the president that the prices offered by incumbent operator (HiNet) was too high, have raised discussion. Though under the pressure of the government and public opinion, HiNet claimed to lower the ADSL prices. Yet the difference of pricing structures in contemporary Taiwan and in other countries needs to be further discussed. This research compares the ADSL prices offered by major operators in selected countries: HiNet in Taiwan, Yahoo! BB in Japan, SingNet in Singapore, BingPond in Australia. The research will focus impact of pricing structures on the demand of consumer and affordability of broadband. The comparative analysis presents that HiNet and Yahoo! BB both only offer flat-rate pricing plans, however, the users of Yahoo! BB spend less percentage of income for given service. SingNet and BigPond offer volume-based pricing and flat-rate pricing plans; hence subscribers can choose appropriate pricing plans and the threshold of broadband access has been lowered down, as a result of light users do not have to subsidy heavy users. In conclusion, this research have three suggestions to HiNet in Taiwan:(1)to set optimal flat-rate pricing plans (2)to offer more value-added services (3)to provide more contents that fit consumers need.