TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Digital Minister Audrey Tang (唐鳳) presented two new Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) programs during its first press conference online on Thursday (Sept. 1).

According to Tang, the purpose of the “Communication Network Digital Resilience Reinforcement with Response or Wartime Application Emerging Technology Plan” is to ensure the operation of Taiwan’s communication networks in the event of communication infrastructure damage during emergencies. By using non-geostationary satellite systems, Taiwan would be able to maintain communication such as video conferencing, Voice over Internet Protocol, and livestreaming, should submarine cables or mobile and telephone networks be damaged.

However, as there is currently no commercial non-geostationary satellite service, the plan will be conducted as a proof of concept to verify the feasibility of using the technology as a backup for facilitating communication. MODA will install non-geostationary satellite equipment at more than 700 domestic locations and three international locations for testing.

Meanwhile, the “Communication Innovation Technology Application Development and Base Environment Building Plan” aims to cultivate practical services that enhance the public’s quality of life and export them to the international market. The services’ value will be measured not only by industrial output value but also social value — such as time saved or improved procedures.

As an example, Tang said a video relay real-time matching service for the speech and language impaired would be an innovative form of communication. While it will be hard to estimate the service’s output value, the service will certainly hold social value, which can be converted to a measurable number.

Tang added that one of the plan’s goals is to encourage the public to generate ideas on how low-latency, high-bandwidth communication forms can be applied. MODA expects to gather at least 100 ideas from the public, from which it will choose 10 for implementation.