Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s biggest telecom, on Monday said that it is to cooperate with Verizon Media to develop 5G immersive content and tap into the “gig economy.”
Verizon Media is the media and online businesses division of Verizon Communications Inc.
The two companies are to jointly develop 5G immersive content such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) videos, Chunghwa Telecom executive vice president Lin Kuo-feng (林國豐) said.
They also plan to create virtual YouTubers (vtubers) and related content, with the aim of exploring new revenue sources, he said.
“We found that Hoodie (虎妮), a vtuber created by Verizon Media’s Yahoo TV, is having a great impact [on users]. We want to bring that kind of immersive content and experience to our customers,” Lin said.
Unlike many other companies, Chunghwa Telecom expects consumer-oriented services — high-quality video, AR and VR applications, and smart home applications — to be the first 5G growth driver, rather than applications designated for enterprises, Lin said.
It would be time-consuming for telecoms to develop applications catering to the special needs of specific industries, he said.
“In the initial stage, consumers will be the early adopters of 5G services. The development of 5G in South Korea is the proof,” Lin said.
Since the commercial launch of 5G in April, about 3 million South Koreans have signed up for the services, he said.
In the long term, 5G technology would bring a revolutionary shift for most industries and create more value for enterprise clients, he added.
Commenting about the company’s 5G pricing strategy, Lin said the company would “be very careful about its pricing policy,” given the cutthroat competition in Taiwan and heavy investment in 5G.
The company would look to implement a 5G tariff that is affordable for consumers, but high enough for the company to recover its costs, he said.
However, it would be unlikely that Taiwanese companies would follow their South Korean peers and set flat rates of about NT$2,000 (US$65.37) a month, which would be too costly for consumers, he said.
Verizon Media is the latest participant in the Taiwan 5G Alliance (台灣5G產業聯盟), which was cofounded by Chunghwa Telecom in January last year.
The alliance has grown to include more than 50 members, including 5G chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) and communications equipment supplier Sercomm Corp (中磊).
NO BREAKTHROUGH? More substantial ‘deliverables,’ such as tariff reductions, would likely be saved for a meeting between Trump and Xi later this year, a trade expert said China launched two probes targeting the US semiconductor sector on Saturday ahead of talks between the two nations in Spain this week on trade, national security and the ownership of social media platform TikTok. China’s Ministry of Commerce announced an anti-dumping investigation into certain analog integrated circuits (ICs) imported from the US. The investigation is to target some commodity interface ICs and gate driver ICs, which are commonly made by US companies such as Texas Instruments Inc and ON Semiconductor Corp. The ministry also announced an anti-discrimination probe into US measures against China’s chip sector. US measures such as export curbs and tariffs
The US on Friday penalized two Chinese firms that acquired US chipmaking equipment for China’s top chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯國際), including them among 32 entities that were added to the US Department of Commerce’s restricted trade list, a US government posting showed. Twenty-three of the 32 are in China. GMC Semiconductor Technology (Wuxi) Co (吉姆西半導體科技) and Jicun Semiconductor Technology (Shanghai) Co (吉存半導體科技) were placed on the list, formally known as the Entity List, for acquiring equipment for SMIC Northern Integrated Circuit Manufacturing (Beijing) Corp (中芯北方積體電路) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Beijing) Corp (中芯北京), the US Federal Register posting said. The
India’s ban of online money-based games could drive addicts to unregulated apps and offshore platforms that pose new financial and social risks, fantasy-sports gaming experts say. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government banned real-money online games late last month, citing financial losses and addiction, leading to a shutdown of many apps offering paid fantasy cricket, rummy and poker games. “Many will move to offshore platforms, because of the addictive nature — they will find alternate means to get that dopamine hit,” said Viren Hemrajani, a Mumbai-based fantasy cricket analyst. “It [also] leads to fraud and scams, because everything is now
MORTGAGE WORRIES: About 34% of respondents to a survey said they would approach multiple lenders to pay for a home, while 29.2% said they would ask family for help New housing projects in Taiwan’s six special municipalities, as well as Hsinchu city and county, are projected to total NT$710.65 billion (US$23.61 billion) in the upcoming fall sales season, a record 30 percent decrease from a year earlier, as tighter mortgage rules prompt developers to pull back, property listing platform 591.com (591新建案) said yesterday. The number of projects has also fallen to 312, a more than 20 percent decrease year-on-year, underscoring weakening sentiment and momentum amid lingering policy and financing headwinds. New Taipei City and Taoyuan bucked the downturn in project value, while Taipei, Hsinchu city and county, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung
RSS