Watch out for the internet outage! In 14 counties and cities in Northern and Central Taiwan, an emergency drill for the first time in August will be held for “war networks becoming blocked”; on mobile phones, only calling and text messaging will remain functional

Under the NCC’s planning, this year the “Urban Resilience Drills” on August 10 and 13 will be held in a total of 14 counties and cities in northern and central Taiwan. For the first time, they will include a drill for “disrupted mobile networks,” simulating scenarios in which war or major disasters trigger disaster roaming and tiered bandwidth throttling.
（Background recap: The Guardian: 7-Eleven becomes Taiwan’s “emergency resupply stations” in wartime; the government has planned 13k convenience stores. Would crypto work if electricity and the internet can be used?）
（Additional background: Decentralization to rescue disaster areas! Jamaica was hit by a hurricane, with “power and internet cut off,” and Bitchat became a wildly popular local messaging app.）

Table of contents

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• A quick look at two sessions and all 14 counties and cities
• How bandwidth is allocated—who gets priority
• Store information in advance—can still look it up even with no network

Taiwan is about to face, for the first time ever, a drill simulating restricted mobile network speeds. The NCC has scheduled, this year on August 10 and 13, simultaneous simulations across 14 counties and cities in northern and central Taiwan, covering communications throttling scenarios after wartime or major disasters occur. For about 30 minutes that day, people will clearly feel their mobile network speeds slow down; social platforms and video streaming will almost certainly be unable to run, but making phone calls, sending and receiving text messages, and government alerts will still be delivered normally.

Two sessions and the 14 counties and cities at a glance

• Central Taiwan (Monday, August 10, 14:30–15:00): Miaoli County, Taichung City, Changhua County, Nantou County, Yunlin County, Chiayi County, Chiayi City
• Northern Taiwan (Thursday, August 13, 14:30–15:00): Taipei City, New Taipei City, Keelung City, Taoyuan City, Hsinchu County, Hsinchu City, Yilan County

Both waves of drills fall on weekday afternoons in the same time window, lasting half an hour each. Once each drill ends, network speeds will return to normal levels.

How is bandwidth allocated? Who gets priority

The NCC explained that after wartime or major-disaster response mechanisms are activated, telecommunications operators will implement two measures: disaster roaming and tiered throttling. Limited bandwidth will be prioritized for voice calls, text messages, and government alert systems, while users’ general data traffic will be significantly compressed.

At that time, phone calls will go through and SMS will be received, but data-heavy actions like browsing Facebook, watching videos, and sending large images are likely to get stuck—or even fail to connect at all.

Store information first—can still check it even if the network is down

To ensure that people can still obtain disaster-preparedness information when network speeds are restricted, the official guidance is to connect to the Police Administration’s air-raid shelter and evacuation special zone on your phone in advance, as well as the Police Services app and the Fire and Disaster Prevention “e-Point Pass” app. After locating the evacuation sites near your home, save screenshots of the information to your phone’s photo gallery so you can browse offline when the network is lagging.

This is also the first time that Urban Resilience Drills formally incorporate the concept of offline backup for digital services into nationwide disaster-preparedness training.