■ Labor
Sprint Corp lays off workers
Sprint Corp will lay off 2,000 workers, or nearly 3 percent of its work force, by the end of the year as part of an effort to cut operating expenses over the next three years. The job cuts will involve both Sprint's wireline and wireless divisions. The company employs about 70,000 people overall, including about 20,000 people in the Kansas City area. About 20 percent of the jobs that will be cut are in the Kansas City area, company spokesman Mark Bonavia said Monday. The cuts are part of the Overland Park, Kansas, telecommunications firm's reorganization around two market segments: business and residential customers. The restructuring is scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1. Including the layoffs announced Monday, Sprint has cut more than 21,000 jobs in just over two years.
■ Wireless
Rules for keeping numbers
New rules went into effect on Monday letting US consumers switch mobile phone companies without changing their phone numbers. Verizon Wireless, the nation's biggest mobile carrier, reported more than twice the usual traffic in its stores, while No. 2 Cingular Wireless said portions of its Web site were down for about two hours as the company added capacity to handle heavier-than-normal visits. The long-awaited rule change, which some called "wireless emancipation," has set off a marketing blitz by mobile phone companies, fearful of losing their customers and anxious to snare new ones from rivals. But while some forecasts suggested that millions of cellphone users might try to switch carriers on the first day, anecdotal reports indicated that many people were waiting to make sure the process runs smoothly enough so they are not left without service due to unexpected glitches.
■ Computers
Dell moves support center
After an onslaught of complaints, direct sales computer king Dell Inc has stopped routing corporate customers to a technical support call center in Bangalore, India. Tech support for Optiplex desktop and Latitude notebook computers will be handled from call centers in Texas, Idaho and Tennessee, Dell spokesman Jon Weisblatt said on Monday. "Customers weren't satisfied with the level of support they were receiving, so we're moving some calls around to make sure they don't feel that way anymore," Weisblatt said. He would not discuss the nature of the dissatisfaction, but the Austin American-Statesman reported on Saturday that some US customers have complained that Indian support operators are difficult to communicate with because of thick accents and scripted responses.
■ Semiconductors
Intel downsizes chips
Intel Corp said on Monday that it has demonstrated a tiny computer chip built with the next generation of manufacturing technology -- called 65-nanometer circuit design -- which it expects will be ready for use in 2005. The 65-nanometer milestone is significant because of its tiny size. A nanometer is a mere billionth of a meter, meaning 10 million 65-nanometer transistors could fit on the tip of a ball-point pen. Intel said the development of the new circuits renews its confidence that Moore's Law, which projects the steady improvement in chip performance, remains in place for at least another 10 years.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
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