Under the plan, the government will build up complete wireless networks in Taiwan's major cities as well as "wireless highways" in remote areas, to enable both urban and rural areas to enjoy broadband services, Liu said.
Turning Taiwan into a wireless region is an extension of the "Mobile-City" (M-City) program initiated by the Taipei City government in 2004 when Taiwan's newly inaugurated president Ma Ying-jeou was serving as the mayor of Taipei.
Over 90% of the population of Taipei City was covered by wireless LAN services six months after the launch of the M-City program, according to data from the Taipei City government. The international certification organization JiWire certified Taipei City as the city with the largest public wireless network in the world in 2006.
Under the new development policy, the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) under Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said that the push of wireless applications in Taiwan will enable Taiwan hardware makers to expand their production from CPE (customer premise equipment) products to central office end products such as WiMAX base stations.
The production value of the WiMAX industry in Taiwan is expected to top NT$100 billion (US$3.29 billion) in 2010 and further expand to NT$270 billion 2015, IDB estimated.
In the short-term, the government aims to built up 10 mobile cities and 14 mobile special zones that will allow 4.5 million people to wirelessly access the Internet in 2008, said the IDB.
---
Autor(en)/Author(s): Bryan Chuang; Steve Shen
Quelle/Source: DigiTimes, 03.06.2008
