There was good news for the nation's frequent short message service (SMS) users yesterday, as PC Home Online (
"We think that SMS should be regarded as a basic service to mobile communication users, and there's still room for further price cuts," Joyce Tzeng (
"Our charge of NT$1 for each message is a reasonable level for consumers ... and is as much as one-third of the market price," Tzeng said.
PC Home will now let mobile phone users send messages at that price through their Internet portal, the nation's fourth-largest. The charges appear on their mobile phone carrier's bill.
The new package also allows non-mobile phone users to send SMS via the Internet after paying at least NT$100 in advance, according to the company.
Users in Taiwan sent a total of 2.4 billion messages, generating total revenues of NT$6.4 billion last year, up from about 2.1 billion messages and revenues of NT$5.3 billion in 2002, according to statistics from the Directorate General of Telecommunication.
The nation's relatively high-priced SMS services, compared to other countries in the region, brought criticism from consumer associations earlier this year, forcing operators to reduce their prices by an average of 25 percent in May.
PC Home's goal of expanding its Web-based SMS business doesn't seem to worry the nation's major telecoms.
"The sending of mobile-to-mobile messages is always much more convenient than Internet-to-mobile SMS," said an official at Chunghwa Telecom Co (
Chunghwa had roughly 8.28 million mobile phone subscribers as of last month.
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV on Friday announced an investment of NT$13.5 billion (US$414.62 million) over the next five years in Taiwan. The first multinational brewing company to operate in Taiwan, Heineken made the statement at a ceremony held at its brewery in Pingtung County. It also outlined its efforts to make the brewery “net zero” by 2030. Heineken has been in the Taiwanese market for 20 years, Heineken Taiwan managing director Jeff Wu (吳建甫) said. With strong support from local consumers, the Dutch brewery decided to transition from sales to manufacturing in the country, Wu said. Heineken assumed majority ownership and management rights
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI