Taiwan unveils aggressive mobile Internet connection plan

Taipei, July 1, 2004 (CENS)--Taiwan government plans to spend NT$37 billion (US$1.1 billion at US$1:NT$33) on broadband infrastructures and wireless applications to allow the island's cellular-service subscribers to connect the Internet with handsets by the end of this year.

The Science and Technology Advisory Group of the Executive Yuan unveiled the plan recently. The group expected the plan to lure ensuing investments of at least NT$110 billion (US$3.3 billion) from local telecom-service providers and telecom-equipment suppliers.

The plan is part of the government's 10 major Infrastructure Projects valued at around NT$500 billion. In this telecom plan, the government will spend NT$30 billion (US$910 million) on broadband infrastructures, likely inspiring telecom providers and cable-TV operators to invest at leas NT$48 billion (US$1.4 billion) in optical-fiber networks and NT$22 billion (US$666 million) in other facilities. The government will spend the remaining NT$7 billion (US$212 million) on application services, likely luring the private sector to put NT$40 billion (US$1.2 billion) into this segment.

According to the group, the plan aims at creating a boundless environment for mobile Internet connections, thus boosting Taiwan's world ranking of mobile Internet connection to the fifth place from the currently 20th place. Also, by carrying out the plan, Taiwan is expected to become the world's first economy rolling out wireless Internet-connection services based on mixed network composed of cellular network and wireless local area network (WLAN).

Local telecom-service providers that have joined the wireless plan include Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd., Far EasTone Telecom Co., Ltd., and Taiwan Cellular Corp. Local handheld-gadget suppliers including BenQ Corp., Asustek Computer Inc., and Mitac International Corp., have vowed to develop handsets for the dual-network services.

The technology advisory group pointed out that handsets activated by cross-network cards will enter a trial stage next month and be available by the end of this year, along with embedded-type phones. Subscribers can connect to the Internet at WLAN hotspots with dual-network phones. The cards can detect what wireless environment the device is in and then lock in. In the initial stage, service providers will provide MP3 music download, on-line gaming and real-time traffic scanning.

Although service providers such as Chunghwa have opened WLAN hotspots at public sites to provide wireless broadband service, the service is not as convenient as desirable for travelers because they have to carry portable devices such as notebook computers and personal digital assistants (PDAs) to access the service. Notebook-computer and PDA makers have built WLAN and GPRS specifications into some of their models, but cellular phones have not been equipped with the WLAN function.

The group pointed out that fixed-line broadband communications network, wireless communications network and Internet network would be the most important and fastest growing networks. It estimated fixed-line network subscribers to increase 1.5 billion and cellular-service subscribers to increase two billion by 2010.

Currently, Taiwan has around 2.2 million subscribers for mobile Internet-connection service, an insignificant number as compared with the island's 25 million cellular-service subscribers. The mobile Internet-connection subscribers now can only access the Internet to download still Web pages, pictures, and data rather than real-time video or interactive games because of the insufficient bandwidth of 2.5th-generation cellular general packet radio service (GPRS) technology.