China issued long-awaited third-generation mobile phone licenses yesterday, a move that will pour billions of dollars into new networks as consumers buy video and Internet-enabled handsets.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued licenses covering the three major standards in China, Europe and North America, in a move that could fundamentally alter the way telecom operators do business.
“Telecom operators used to provide only access to network and did not care much about content. But now they’ll rush to develop content,” said Tang Mingjun (唐明君), a Shanghai-based analyst with Shenyin and Wanguo Securities (申銀萬國證券).
Market leader China Mobile Ltd (中國移動通信) received a license for the Chinese-developed TD-SCDMA standard, according to Wang Lijian, a spokesman for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
China Unicom Ltd (中國聯通) got a license for Europe’s WCDMA standard, while China Telecom Corp (中國電信) will handle North America’s CDMA 2000, Wang said.
The international standards require that operators pay royalties to foreign developers.
China Mobile began a non-commercial trial of its 3G service in April last year involving 800,000 people, but it has been plagued by complaints that the service is unreliable, said Fang Meiqin, an associate director of Beijing-based BDA China.
China Telecom is expected to launch its 3G service in the first quarter in major cities and China Unicom is aiming to roll out its service in May in Beijing and expand its coverage to about 200 cities by September, Fang said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six