Telecom equipment maker Sercomm Corp (中磊) expects small-cell base stations to contribute a single-digit percentage to its revenue this year as more telecoms deploy the low-powered stations to better manage spectrum in the 4G era, a company executive said yesterday.
“Small cells can help telecoms extend their 4G coverage and help them manage fast-growing mobile traffic at efficient costs,” chief executive James Wang (王煒) said. “As 4G subscriptions grow rapidly, it is foreseeable that a mobile traffic jam will occur as soon as next year.”
Sercomm’s new small cell, dubbed F200-GD, has gained approval from the National Communications Commission ahead of the government’s planned auction of new 2,600-megahertz spectrum by the end of this year. The new bandwidth auction is expected to help local telecoms improve their 4G long-term-evolution (LTE) services.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Sercomm said three local telecoms are testing the company’s small cells in preparation for growing data traffic in macrocell networks.
In contrast to bulky macrocells widely used for wireless access outdoors, small cells are suitable for telecoms to deploy in-building wireless networks and to offload traffic from macrocell networks in urban or otherwise densely populated areas.
Fast-growing mobile data traffic would help stimulate adoption of small cells and help magnify those base stations’ revenue contribution to Sercomm to a double-digit percentage next year, Wang said.
The company now supplies small cells to the world’s biggest telecom, China Mobile Ltd (中國移動), which aims to boost its 4G users to 200 million this year.
Japan’s Softbank Corp is expected to be the second operator using small cells to expand its 4G coverage, Sercomm said.
“We expect to see an explosive growth of small cells next year,” Wang said.
Sercomm makes small cells supporting both 4G TDD-LTE and FDD-LTE technology. TDD-LTD technology is used by China Mobile, while FDD-LTD technology is used mostly in Taiwan.
The company expects that growing integration of TDD-LTD and FDD-LTE technologies in the supply chain — mostly base stations and mobile phones — would help boost small-cell demand.
Many smartphones, including HTC Corp’s (宏達電) One M9, Huawei Technology Inc’s (華為) P7 and Samsung Electronics Co’s Galaxy 5S, support both technologies.
Sercomm reported record-high revenue of NT$2.36 billion (US$75.57 million) last month, up nearly 35 percent from NT$1.75 billion in the same period last year.
That brought the company’s total revenue last quarter to rise 36 percent annually to NT$6.35 billion from NT$4.67 billion.
“With strong demand from the US, China and Japan, we expect a rosy growth [of revenue] this year,” Wang said.
Yuanta Securities (元大證券) forecast Sercomm’s revenue to expand to an all-time high this year to NT$27.56 billion, up 19 percent from NT$23.19 billion last year, given significant broadband infrastructure opportunities in the US and China.
The brokerage gave a “buy” rating on Sercomm, with a target price of NT$84, implying about 23 percent upside from the stock’s closing price of NT$68.5 yesterday in Taipei trading.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last