Taipei and 6 Northern Localities Hold Urban Resilience Drill, Slow Mobile Internet to Text-Only Speed

Taiwan held the second and final day of its first-ever mobile-internet-slowdown exercise on August 13, 2026, covering Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Keelung, Hsinchu City, Hsinchu County and Yilan County from 2:30–3:00 p.m., following a similar drill in Taichung on August 10. Telecom operators throttled mobile data to 256 Kbps — enough for text messages and emergency alerts but not much else — while the National Communications Commission preserved voice calls and disaster-prevention cell broadcasts. Streets across northern Taiwan emptied and a Taipei metro station briefly shut its gates as part of a simultaneous air raid simulation. The drill, part of the closing phase of the Han Kuang 42 exercise cycle, is designed to test civilian and government communications resilience against a wartime or major-disaster bandwidth collapse. President Lai Ching-te apologized publicly for the inconvenience, saying 'we ask for your understanding and support, as this is a necessary drill.'