With availability of high-speed wireless connections or third-generation (3G) services expected to be years away, wireless network may have the chance to get a chunk from the market, a telecom industry pundit said yesterday.
"Since 3G service is not expected to be popular until 2005, those that need wireless connections now may turn to wireless local-area networks [WLAN] first," said Sun Min-Cheng (
A wireless local-area network is a data communications system that acts as an alternative to a wired local-area network. By using radio frequency technology, the network transmits and receives data over the air, eliminating the need for wired connections.
In Taiwan, wireless networks are in use at CKS International Airport, Taipei Sungshan Airport and Kaohsiung International Airport and hotels, along with a few coffee shops.
The service enables users to transmit e-mail and browse Web sites via notebooks or personal digital assistants without plugging devices into a wall socket.
For those that want to get online via WLAN, the installation of wireless Internet modules and passwords provided by service operators are needed. Operators have to set up access points -- one about every 100m -- around service areas.
WLAN has lower service fees and higher speeds than 3G, Sun said.
"Compared with the billions of dollars in license fees for 3G, operating WLAN doesn't require any payment to the government, resulting in vastly lower service charges," he said.
On the average, the charge for unlimited access to WLAN services is about NT$500 per month.
WLAN's transmission speed is 11Mb per second, nearly 200 times faster than a dial-up connection and five times faster than a 3G connection, he said.
The market for WLAN is expected to skyrocket.
"We predict that WLAN services will take off within the next two years as technology matures and equipment prices drop," Sun said.
Global WLAN access-point-equipment sales are expected to reach US$3.5 billion in 2005 from US$1.5 billion this year.
By the end of last year there were about 500 locations offering wireless connection aroundTaiwan, and that figure may triple this year, a Market Intelligence Center report said.
Although the application of WLAN and 3G may overlap in some ways, Sun said the two technologies may turn out to be partners rather than rivals.
"WLANs are suitable for those who want to sit down in certain places and use notebook personal computers or personal digital assistants," he said.
Another telecom watcher said that 3G and WLAN have different market positions.
"3G services are designed for truly mobile Internet connection," Market Intelligence Center analyst Su Yu-yi (
Users that need timely information while on the move will want 3G service.
"3G can be accessed via mobile phones -- other devices such as notebooks or PDAs won't be needed," Su said
Some service providers are considering the use of wireless Internet cards that can detect both 3G and WLAN signals, Su said
When users are outdoors, their devices will connect to 3G networks, and when they enter a location where WLAN service is available the device will seamlessly reconnect itself to the WLAN site.
"Future wireless Internet connections will most probably integrate both 3G and WLAN services," Su said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained