Wed, Jun 15, 2005 page10

• Government urged to promote WiFi

  COMMUNICATION Taiwan lags behind South Korea, Japan, Finland and the US in wireless infrastructure, and as such could miss out on some business opportunities

  • By Jessie Ho / STAFF REPORTER
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  Taiwan must accelerate progress in constructing wireless infrastructure in its major cities to catch up in the worldwide trend toward having wireless Internet connections available everywhere, officials and industrialists said yesterday.

  They said expanding the infrastructure would help create huge business potential for the industry.

  "The prevalence of wireless broadband Internet access will stimulate local companies to develop compatible mobile devices, which is expected to draw orders from overseas since many countries are keen to construct so-called `wireless cities,'" said Jason Chen (陳立生), country manager of Intel Microelectronics Asia Ltd's Taiwan Branch.

  Finland, the US, Japan and South Korea are countries that are speeding up promotion of wireless cities, Chen said at a forum.

  The South Korean government has pumped huge resources into wireless infrastructure as a way to develop the nation's flat-panel display industry, he said.

  Japan's government plans to have Tokyo to become the first city where WiMax -- a technology that can send high-speed broadband signals over a citywide area -- is available everywhere, while in Finland, Nokia Oyj recently announced it would work with Intel to develop handsets that operate using WiMax, he said.

  In comparison, wireless Internet connection is only available in small areas of certain cities in this country. Taipei City has the largest coverage, which includes the Xinyi District and 30 mass rapid transit (MRT) stations.

  The Taipei City Government plans to bring the service to 50 percent of the population by the end of this month and 90 percent by the end of next year.

  Although Taipei has the most hotspots in the nation, the utilization rate is low. According to city government's estimates, on weekdays an average of 450 users access the wireless connection a day in and near the MRT stations, and about 200 people make use of the service in the Xinyi District.

  Expanding the hotspots into a hotzone is key to boosting user traffic, as well as attracting more content providers to develop more value-added services, Chen said.

  However, networks provided by different telecom carriers should be integrated to allow users access the wireless connections without going through the hassle of applying for different accounts, he said.

  Taipei Deputy Mayor King Pu-tsung (金溥聰), who attended the forum, said the city government's goal is to first expand the coverage to bring in a critical mass of users. At that point, the price of portable devices to access the service, such as cellphones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), would be more affordable, which in turn would prompt more people to utilize the service, King said.

  But much more has to be done, Chen said, adding that the largest barrier remains regulations, since the bandwidth is still controlled by the government.

  Fortunately, the government has agreed to loosen regulations within six months, said Wong Pu-shan (翁樸山), chairman of the Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association's (電電公會) communications industry alliance.

  "The industry is expected to take off in 2008, when various form of communications, including sound, text, image and motion pictures can be integrated in one gadget wherever people go," Wong said.
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