Taiwan Mobile invests in NGN

Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) plans to invest in the nationwide optical fiber next-generation network (NGN) to offer convergent telecom services, including cellular phone services, fixed lines and cable television networks on Internet Protocol, local media quoted a company executive as saying.

Such a move would make Taiwan Mobile the second local telecom service carrier to make the jump to NGNs after state-run Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信).

Taiwan Mobile and Chunghwa will be the NGN market's two biggest competitors.

Initial investment is expected to exceed NT$20 billion, a report in the Chinese-language Commercial Times cited market analysts as saying.

Taiwan Mobile acting technology officer Lin Chiu-ming (林秋明) said on Saturday that the company would begin its investment and procurement projects within one or two months, starting with core network equipment.

He said the investment would total tens of billions of NT dollars.

As the company will focus on core network, switch, server and end-user terminal equipment, high-speed network companies such as ZyXEL Communications Corp (合勤科技), D-Link Corp (友訊科技) and Alpha Networks Inc (明泰科技), along with other leading network communications companies, are expected to benefit from the investment.

To keep costs and construction time minimal, Taiwan Mobile signed an exclusive rental contract with Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC, 台灣高鐵) last year to use its nationwide optical fiber network and will be paying between NT$300 million (US$9.7 million) and NT$400 million per year, the report said.

In addition, Taiwan Mobile will take advantage of the government-funded national optical fiber network -- part of the M-Taiwan project.

Lin said that using the THSRC network would allow Taiwan Mobile to save a considerable sum.

Nevertheless, access network and end-user terminal equipment should cost tens of billions of NT dollars, Lin said, adding that local network communications firms would be the biggest beneficiaries of the NGN project.

Taiwan Mobile's use of the THSRC optical fiber network will entrench the company's position in the market, the company said.

Market analysts said that as digital convergent telecom services shake up the global telecom landscape, both Taiwan Mobile and Chunghwa Telecom are positioning themselves with an eye to breaking into foreign markets. Both are betting on a combination of cellphone services, fixed lines and cable TV networks, they said.