December 22, 2004
Taiwan's telecom giant Chunghwa Telecom in January 2005 will begin offering automatic teller machine services through its multimedia-on-demand set-top-boxes which it introduced in Northern Taiwan this year. Although subscribers, try as they might, will fail in their attempts to withdraw cash, they will be able to enjoy the convenience of all other ATM services, from checking balances to bank transfers to bill payments, in the comfort of their homes.
Chunghwa's set-top-boxes are equipped with ATM card readers, so a user can simply insert his card into his box in order to conduct home banking.
Chunghwa Telecom stresses that its MOD system is even more secure for home banking than Internet banking because it is a sealed system.
Chunghwa has signed up 24,000 set-top-box subscribers since March. It aims to attract more customers by offering a greater variety of services, including home shopping. Its goal is to cultivate an MOD subscriber base of one million within three years.
Chunghwa offers it MOD services over its ADSL Internet lines. Cable TV operators currently offer home banking services, however, their cables only provide one-way service, meaning a phone call is required to complete a transaction. Cable companies are in the process of laying lines for two-way service and expect to go on line with their new systems in 2005.
As part of its effort to draw new subscribers, Chunghwa is reported to be planning to offer free MPEG-4
IP set-top box for MOD services. Its current subscribers use MPEG-2
IP set-top boxes. It is said to have ordered 430,000 MPEG-4
IP-set-top boxes.
The growth of MOD and home banking highlights how new consumer technologies, including a city-wide Wi-Fi network slated for Taipei City and digital television, are coming on line fast in Taiwan.
(United Daily News, DigiTimes)
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