The output value of Taiwan’s telecommunications industry is forecast to grow 14.2 percent year-on-year to NT$2.32 trillion (US$79.48 billion) next year, a research institute said yesterday.
Strong orders for Apple smartphones and the popularity of long-term evolution (LTE) — a super-fast wireless technology — will fuel the growth, according to the Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute (MIC, 產業情報研究所), which is under the government-funded Institute for Information Industry.
LTE is not expected to be available in Taiwan until 2017.
This year, the output value of the domestic telecommunications industry is forecast to increase 12.3 percent to NT$2.03 trillion. This includes NT$1.35 trillion from the mobile telecommunications sector, which is expected to rise by 13.6 percent from last year.
The wireless local area network (WLAN) sector will see output value increase 12.5 percent to NT$91.5 billion this year, the Taipei-based MIC predicted.
In addition, sales in the global smartphone market will reach 682 million units this year, with 10 percent of devices supporting LTE.
The MIC predicted that the number of operators providing LTE services will increase. This, along with sales of Apple’s iPhone 5 — which utilizes LTE — is expected to boost the percentage of LTE-capable smartphones to 20 percent next year, the MIC said.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is forecast to record a 7 percent rise year-on-year, or NT$1.55 trillion, in output value this year. The output value for next year will increase by 6 percent from this year, the research institute said.
The IC design, foundry and IC packaging and testing sectors will see minor output value increases, while the dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) sector will have a chance to stem its drop in output value, the MIC predicted.
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