Taiwan Government Sees US$644 Million WiMAX Network Invest by 2010

TAIPEI -(Dow Jones)- Taiwan expects the total investment in WiMAX networks on the island to reach US$644 million by 2010, a senior government official said Monday.

Ho Mei-Yueh, minister of state and chairwoman of the Council for Economic Planning and Development for the Executive Yuen, said the government estimates Taiwan will have 8 million WiMAX network subscribers by the end of 2010.

The Taiwan government has allocated a five-year development budget of US$1.22 billion for the M-Taiwan project, a program aimed at establishing a wireless broadband Internet services infrastructure in Taiwan, Ho said at the 2007 Asia Pacific Intel Developer Forum.

"Taiwan's manufacturing industry has seldom reaped high profits because we have the habit of being cautious about entering markets, until we are sure that a product is mature," said Hon. "With WiMAX, our government has decided to adopt a new way of thinking in encouraging companies to invest in WiMAX early on."

The Taiwan government has signed memorandums of understanding to boost the development of WiMAX technology on the island with Intel, Nortel Networks, NEC and Rohde & Schwarz.

Earlier this month, a government official said the administration will sign MOUs on the licensing of WiMAX technology and the purchase of related equipment Oct. 22 with Sprint Nextel, a telecom operator, and telecom-equipment makers Nokia-Siemens Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, Motorola and Starent Networks.

Ho also said Taiwan's WiMAX customer-premises equipment, used to connect users to WiMAX networks, shipment volume reached 125,400 units with a production value of US$28.1 million in the first half of 2007. The government expects the production value of Taiwan's WiMAX CPE equipment shipments to reach around US$4.4 billion in 2012.

-By Wei Yi Lim, Dow Jones Newswires, 88622 502-3001, weiyi.lim@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Posted to the site on 15th October 2007