| dc.description.abstract | In between the years 2005 and 2009, the “M-Taiwan Project” was executed by the Construction and Planning Agency. During the project, 5800 kilometers of the broadband network were built, including 677 kilometers in Taoyuan City. In 2013, as the network had been in service for over ten years, the maintenance and repair project of the broadband network was launched. More care is required to the network as it has moved later into its life cycle, yet the lack of funding to maintain the existing network has become a new obstacle of the new maintenance and repair project. In recent years, network expansion has been gradual. However, the funding of maintenance is supported by the pipeline rent paid by operating companies which has a positive relationship with the new expansion of the broadband network. The lack of funding could eventually affect the ability to repay the loan that was put in place to construct the project. There is still a long way to go to keep the system in operation, and to turn the loss into profit is the motivation of composing this thesis.
The good news is in 2018 with an expansion of 197 kilometers on broadband pipelines, Taoyuan City was ranked first on the longest new broadband network built among all the municipalities in Taiwan followed by that of 155 kilometers of Tainan City and 76 kilometers by Taichung City. The high mileage of network expansion, with a 50 percent increase in pipeline rent after becoming a special municipality, made the funding for maintenance and operation seem hopeful. Although the outcome looks promising, the equipment carrying capacity of the city and the aging of equipment also have to be considered. In other words, the broadband has a service time of over 30 years, and limited expansion can be done as most of the city has been covered. This limits the income for pipeline rent. In addition, advances in technology will also emphasize the weak points as the equipment gets older. From all the reasons above, the increase in maintenance and operation fees in the future has to be taken into account. A good example would be the surrounding area near THSR Taoyuan Station and the areas of Aerotropolis. The common conduits in these two areas have been in service for over ten years, which causes the wirings, equipment parts, and the equipment itself to deteriorate over time and lead to frequent breakdowns. The Department of Public Works of Taoyuan City has placed 200 million Taiwanese dollars to further improve the operating, maintenance, and monitoring capacity of the existing common conduits. The maintenance and installation project includes upgrades of the electrical system, monitoring system, gas detection system, and a common conduit monitoring system that was put in place during the project. Aside from the maintenance and upgrades to the common conduits maintenance project, the Building Information Modeling (BIM) process that is popular in the engineering field was also introduced during the project. The purpose of this study is to advance subordinates and discuss the problems that might be encountered and improvements that could be made during the maintenance and operating phase of the broadband pipeline system.
This study has consulted all regulations and previous studies related to broadband pipelines. All dispatch records from the year 2018 to 2020 were analyzed. Interviews with experts and surveys were conducted to reflect advice and improvements that can be done from the operating companies and contractors. The conclusion of this study was made by thorough consolidation and analysis to provide possible solutions and improvements to current situations.
Due to limitations of time and length, two other fields could be integrated into broadband pipeline networks in the future to ameliorate existing systems: the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Project Management Information System (PMIS). These two systems are the technological advances mentioned above. Using IoT, pipeline networks can be remotely monitored and controlled using internet signals, unlike the older method which requires personnel to inspect every inch of pipelines that is spread out throughout Taoyuan City manually. With PMIS, the “Broadband Maintenance and Operation Platform” that was mentioned in this study can be upgraded and become more user-friendly and time-efficient on maintenance and operation. Both IoT and PMIS have gained lots of success across different fields, which made this study believe that it is certain that these two systems can be integrated into broadband networks. Lastly, the integration of these systems can hopefully bring inspiration to those who are engaged in subsequent research in this area. | en_US |