![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/P03-260423-328.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAn amendment to the Telecommunications Management Act (\u96fb\u4fe1\u7ba1\u7406\u6cd5) passed by the Legislative Yuan today is to ease restrictions on foreign ownership of certain telecommunications service providers, potentially paving the way for US-based satellite communications provider Starlink to enter the Taiwan market.<\/p>\n
The amendment cleared its third reading without a vote after lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party reached a consensus. <\/p>\n
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Photo: Reuters<\/p>\n
Under Taiwan’s legislative procedures, the bill was read aloud on the legislative floor to formally mark its passage.<\/p>\n
The revised rules state that applicants seeking to establish telecommunications network operators using satellite communications technology would be exempt from existing foreign ownership limits and the requirement that the company’s chairperson be a Republic of China (Taiwan) national.<\/p>\n
Article 36 currently prohibits foreign investors from directly owning more than 40 percent, or indirectly owning more than 60 percent, of a telecommunications service provider. <\/p>\n
It also requires the company’s chairperson to be a Taiwanese national.<\/p>\n
The amended law allows foreign satellite-based telecommunications operators to be exempt from those restrictions under certain circumstances, including when such exemptions would not pose a threat to national security and would promote industrial development and market competition.<\/p>\n
The Legislative Yuan also adopted a supplementary resolution requiring the competent authorities to treat the installation of satellite ground receiving stations and onshore data localization as key considerations when implementing the new rules.<\/p>\n
Local media have reported that the relaxation of the foreign ownership rules is intended to facilitate the entry of Starlink, the satellite Internet service operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.<\/p>\n
KMT Legislator Huang Chien-hao (\u9ec3\u5065\u8c6a) said Taiwan relies heavily on submarine cables for international communications, while domestic communications depend primarily on terrestrial base stations and fiber-optic networks.<\/p>\n
Introducing a low Earth orbit satellite communications system would complement the existing communications infrastructure and help ensure secure and reliable communications during emergencies, Huang said.<\/p>\n
DPP Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (\u6797\u4fca\u61b2) said the current law has made it difficult for international companies with mature satellite technologies to enter Taiwan’s market.<\/p>\n
The restrictions on foreign ownership have limited the diversification of Taiwan’s communications infrastructure and undermined the nation’s resilience, Lin added.<\/p>\n
However, Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-jing (\u6797\u5b9c\u656c) said last week that to his knowledge, Starlink has not been pursuing the Taiwan market, as it believes Taiwan’s 4G and 5G population coverage has already reached 99.9 percent, limiting commercial opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An amendment to the Telecommunications Management Act (\u96fb\u4fe1\u7ba1\u7406\u6cd5) passed by the Legislative Yuan today is to ease restrictions…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":949362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[24],"tags":[382200,159,783,11182,19448,22593,67,132,68,22592],"class_list":["post-949361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-legislative-yuan","tag-science","tag-space","tag-starlink","tag-telecoms","tag-the-taipei-times","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-22592"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116957367351724534","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=949361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/949362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=949361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=949361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=949361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}