Ericsson AB, the world’s largest maker of wireless networks, plans to invest US$1.5 billion in South Korea over the next five years.
The company will set up a research center in South Korea to develop environmentally friendly and fourth-generation wireless technologies, chief executive officer Carl-Henric Svanberg said at a meeting in Stockholm with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, the presidential Blue House said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
Stockholm-based Ericsson also plans to increase the number of employees at its South Korean unit to 1,000 from 80, the statement said.
Lee, on a three-day visit to Sweden, said South Korea’s government was determined to provide a level playing field for foreign businesses to compete with local rivals.
The investment is expected to help boost South Korea’s competitiveness in the market for long-term evolution (LTE), high-speed wireless technology, backed by Ericsson, the statement said.
AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc are also opting for the standard.
Verizon Wireless, the biggest US cellphone company, aims to begin offering a high-speed network in all US regions by 2015 using LTE, which is scheduled to reach 30 markets by next year.
LG Electronics Inc, Asia’s No. 2 cellphone maker, said in December it developed a faster wireless chip used in mobile phones based on the technology.
The LTE market will be bigger than that of the rival WiMax technology, Skott Ahn, president of LG’s cellphone business, said at the time.
Samsung Electronics Co, the world’s second-largest mobile-phone maker, said last month it expected to increase network-equipment sales as more operators begin deploying the mobile WiMax wireless high-speed Internet service.
The Suwon, South Korea-based company has a share of about 35 percent of the mobile WiMax-equipment market, executive vice president Kim Woon-sub, who heads Samsung’s network business, said in an interview on June 24.
WiMax is competing with LTE to replace third-generation technology.
“Mobile WiMax will outpace LTE over the next few years due to its head start on deployments,” researcher In-Stat said in February. “Mobile WiMax already has commercial deployments, while LTE won’t be commercially available until late 2009.”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it is expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong this afternoon and a land warning tomorrow. As of 1pm, the storm was about 1,070km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, and was moving west-northwest at 28 to 32kph, according to CWA data. The storm had a radius of 250km, with maximum sustained winds of 173kph and gusts reaching 209kph, the CWA added. The storm is forecast to pass near Luzon in the Philippines before entering the South China Sea and potentially turning northward toward Taiwan, the CWA said. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said
PREPARATION: Ferry lines and flights were canceled ahead of only the second storm to hit the nation in November, while many areas canceled classes and work Authorities yesterday evacuated more than 3,000 people ahead of approaching Tropical Storm Fung-wong, which is expected to make landfall between Kaohsiung and Pingtung County this evening. Fung-wong was yesterday morning downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm as it approached the nation’s southwest coast, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, as it issued a land alert for the storm. The alert applies to residents in Tainan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung and Taitung counties, and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春). As of press time last night, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Yilan, Miaoli, Changhua, Yunlin, Pingtung and Penghu counties, as well as Chiayi city and county had
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday issued a sea alert for Typhoon Fung-wong (鳳凰) as it threatened vessels operating in waters off the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島), the Bashi Channel and south of the Taiwan Strait. A land alert is expected to be announced some time between late last night and early this morning, the CWA said. As of press time last night, Taoyuan, as well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties had declared today a typhoon day, canceling work and classes. Except for a few select districts in Taipei and New Taipei City, all other areas and city
VIOLATION OF NORMS: China’s CCTV broadcast claimed that Beijing could use Interpol to issue arrest warrants, which the MAC slammed as an affront to order The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for attempts to intimidate Taiwanese through “transnational repression.” The council issued the remarks after state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) yesterday during a news broadcast aired a video targeting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋), threatening him with “cross-border repression” and saying: “Stop now, or you will be next,” in what Taipei officials said was an attempt to intimidate not only Shen, but also the broader Taiwanese public. The MAC in a statement condemned the threat, accusing Beijing of trying to instill fear and self-censorship among Taiwanese and
RSS