The greater Taipei area will soon be blanketed in wireless Internet access covering 28km2, making it the largest wireless Internet zone area in the world, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Ma made the announcement at the opening ceremony of an online "brain-game contest" at Taipei City Hall.
"Every city in the world is striving to become a place with as many wireless Internet connection points as possible. In two days, Taipei will establish a wireless Internet zone that covers 5 percent of the city's most-populated area. From June or July next year, around 90 percent of these areas will be provided with wireless access," Ma said.
The 28km2 wireless coverage includes Taipei's Shihmending, Hsinyi and other areas around Taipei Main Station where 2,300 wireless Internet access points can be seen.
"In other countries, places where wireless Internet is provided, such as MacDonald's, hotels and schools, are called `hot points.' But Taipei itself has already become a `hot zone,'" Ma said.
He said that all the schools in Taipei will have wireless access and PDAs will also be provided with an Internet phone service.
"Taiwan is the best computer-hardware manufacturer in the world and more than 90 percent of wireless Internet ports are made here. Plus, because of the government's support of such a plan, Taipei is becoming a wireless city," Ma said.
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has secured three construction permits for its plan to build a state-of-the-art A14 wafer fab in Taichung, and is likely to start construction soon, the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau said yesterday. Speaking with CNA, Wang Chun-chieh (王俊傑), deputy director general of the science park bureau, said the world’s largest contract chipmaker has received three construction permits — one to build a fab to roll out sophisticated chips, another to build a central utility plant to provide water and electricity for the facility and the other to build three office buildings. With the three permits, TSMC
The DBS Foundation yesterday announced the launch of two flagship programs, “Silver Motion” and “Happier Caregiver, Healthier Seniors,” in partnership with CCILU Ltd, Hondao Senior Citizens’ Welfare Foundation and the Garden of Hope Foundation to help Taiwan face the challenges of a rapidly aging population. The foundation said it would invest S$4.91 million (US$3.8 million) over three years to foster inclusion and resilience in an aging society. “Aging may bring challenges, but it also brings opportunities. With many Asian markets rapidly becoming super-aged, the DBS Foundation is working with a regional ecosystem of like-minded partners across the private, public and people sectors
BREAKTHROUGH TECH: Powertech expects its fan-out PLP system to become mainstream, saying it can offer three-times greater production throughput Chip packaging service provider Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) plans to more than double its capital expenditures next year to more than NT$40 billion (US$1.31 billion) as demand for its new panel-level packaging (PLP) technology, primarily used in chips for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, has greatly exceeded what it can supply. A significant portion of the budget, about US$1 billion, would be earmarked for fan-out PLP technology, Powertech told investors yesterday. Its heavy investment in fan-out PLP technology over the past 10 years is expected to bear fruit in 2027 after the technology enters volume production, it said, adding that the tech would