Sprint Wireless Broadband Co, the US WiMAX service carrier, yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with the government to join existing laboratories in Taiwan in providing testing and qualification services for local WiMAX device manufacturers.
Under the contract, Sprint will provide interoperability testing (IOT) services in cooperation with other agencies. Clearwire Corp will deliver the services.
The deal will help local manufacturers save about NT$1 billion a year by eliminating the need to transport their products overseas for testing as well as by shortening the time to market, the Ministry of Economic Affair said in a statement.
“This cooperation facilitates advanced WiMAX support between Taiwan and Clearwire and brings worldwide deployment a step closer through the collaboration,” said Teresa Kellett, director of Sprint’s Global Development division.
“We will not set up a separate one. We will work with existing labs,” Kellet said, declining to reveal the names of potential partners and the investment amount.
Intel Corp, Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel and Motorola have set up IOT centers for WiMAX products in Taiwan.
Sprint started offering the high-speed WiMAX services in Baltimore in September this year and purchased some of its WiMAX components from Taiwanese telecom equipment maker Zyxel Communications Corp (合勤科技).
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