Taiwan needs to draw up a policy, or a strategy, to create a friendly environment for local industries to develop next-generation, or 5G, wireless technology — and the National Communications Commission (NCC) needs to work with the Ministry of Economic Affairs to make it happen. The nation cannot afford another misstep in the next technology migration after mistakenly betting on WiMAX in the battle for 4G dominance.
As a result of the WiMAX wager, Taiwan has lagged far behind most countries in commercializing 4G services and developing related telecom services. In 2007, the commission auctioned six WiMAX licenses. Six years later, it released six long-term evolution (LTE) frequency-division duplex (FDD) licenses after the technology surpassed WiMAX — which was originally backed by US chip giant Intel Corp — and became the mainstream 4G technology. The nation’s big three telecommunications operators only launched 4G services this summer: South Korea and Japan already saw their 4G LTE penetration reach 50 percent and 30 percent respectively last year.
Taiwan is a small home market for local manufacturers. However, the nation will definitely play an important role as a test ground for firms to expand their business overseas. Take Sercomm Corp as an example: The manufacturer of telecommunications equipment — including low-powered radio access nodes, or so-called small cells — said the Taiwanese market only contributes 1 percent to its total revenue.
“However, we need the home market and the infrastructure to support the company’s growth,” Sercomm chief executive James Wang (王煒) said.
Being a test ground, Taiwan has to keep close pace with global telecom trends, which has seen the rise of both LTE FDD and LTE time-division duplex (TDD) technologies. Growing bandwidth demand is spurring a global convergence of these two technologies that is likely to carry into 5G technology. However, the ministry has avoided voicing its support for LTE-TDD technology after the WiMAX fiasco.
As for the NCC, commission Chairman Howard Shyr (石世豪) told reporters last week: “The NCC’s job is to regulate the telecoms industry. You have to ask the economics ministry about telecoms industry policy.”
Minister of Science and Technology Simon Chang (張善政) has also given up pushing the government to invest up to NT$20 billion (US$662 million) in 5G technology over 10 years after his suggestion was turned down while he was Cabinet minister without portfolio.
“We will release the frequency bands [for LTE-TDD technology] when the market needs them,” Shyr said.
That is a vague and irresponsible answer, as consumers are left in the dark as to which technology they will be using to connect to the Internet.
Shyr has said that the commission would release 140MHz bandwidth for LTE-FDD next year and 50MHz bandwidth for LTE-TDD technology in the second half of next year.
Industry insiders warned, however, that the imbalance in the frequency band arrangement would hamper technological convergence.
No bandwidth, no convergence and no 5G business opportunities, the people said.
Five years ago, South Korea, Japan and the US planned ahead for the arrival of 5G and began investing in the new wireless technology to cope with future demand for super-fast Internet connections. Those countries have invested state funds and released frequency bands to foster the development of 5G technology.
Taiwan is already late in developing 5G technology. Government agencies have to join forces on the issue or else the nation will only play a marginal role when the new technology arrives.
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