Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), the nation’s No. 3 telecoms operator, yesterday launched an LTE lab to provide testing and verification services for local chipmakers and suppliers of mobile device and networking equipment before launch, lending support to the 4G wireless standard.
“WiMAX is still developing ... But we see that LTE is fast evolving and we want to embrace these technology evolutions, too,” Douglas Hsu (徐旭東), chairman of Far Eastern Group (遠東集團), which owns Far EasTone, told a press conference. “We will adopt the standard that finally wins out.”
Taiwanese telecoms operators, including Far EasTone, began commercial operations of WiMAX, which competes with LTE for 4G mainstream technology, early last year to a lukewarm consumer response.
There are two major LTE standards running on different wireless spectrums: FDD-LTE and TD-LTE.
TD-LTE is backed by China Mobile Ltd (中國移動), the world’s largest mobile service provider in terms of subscriber numbers.
Another WiMAX operator, Global Mobile Corp (全球一動), recently said it would slowly move toward TD-LTE, with the commercial launch likely to take between three and five years.
Backing WiMAX technology, Taiwan’s telecoms regulator has not set a timetable to auction any LTE licenses yet for local companies to deploy the network.
TD-LTE and FDD-LTE are compatible with the same handset/PC chip, so devices can access both networks. It is understood that -upgrading from WiMAX to TD-LTE is cheaper and easier than upgrading from WiMAX to FDD-LTE.
Taiwanese electronics and component makers — including HTC Corp (宏達電), Acer Inc (宏碁) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) — are also tapping the emergence of TD-LTE on the possibility that the standard will be adopted by the world’s two most populous markets — China and India.
“WiMAX is going downhill,” said a person at Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), the world’s No. 1 contract maker of laptop computers. “We must now prepare for a complete TD-LTE ecosystem in order not to miss out on the future business potential.”
The executive asked not to be named because he was speaking without authorization.
The possibility that users in China and India will use TD-LTE makes the standard a possible cash cow, so this standard will overshadow FDD-LTE, which is being adopted in the West, he said.
Quanta has a series of TD-LTE product developments in the pipeline, such as tablets, dongles and routers.
China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou (王建宙) yesterday said at a live teleconference that the company looks forward to working with Taiwanese telecoms operators, network equipment and end-device makers to propel the TD-LTE standard to a greater height.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained