GSM Association (GSMA), a trade association for the global mobile industry, said Monday that Taiwan should focus on the development of long-term evolution (LTE) wireless broadband technology to achieve bigger economies of scale in the device manufacturing market.
For the past few years, the Taiwan government has supported WiMAX 4G (fourth-generation) technology as part of efforts to boost local Taiwanese products and become the world's largest exporter of WiMAX devices.
Both LTE and WiMAX are 4G mobile broadband technologies that can accomodate high levels of data transmission over mobile phone networks to usher in a new era of smartphone capability. But WiMAX, which was developed first, has faced years of setbacks as more mobile carriers worldwide have committed to LTE to upgrade their networks.
Low level of worldwide WiMAX demand, as shown by the fact that no global WiMAX hub was developed, means WiMAX devices will likely cost more than LTE devices, said Chris Perera, GSMA director of spectrum policy and regulatory affairs for the Asia Pacific region.
"Although local demand will drive the WiMAX market, given the smaller market size in terms of lower demand, it is in Taiwan's best interest to focus on the manufacturing of HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) wireless networking and LTE equipment rather than WiMAX equipment," Perera said at the second 4G International Forum in Taipei.
In addition, Perera suggested the National Communications Commission (NCC), Taiwan's chief regulatory institution in the field, define a clear roadmap to help local WiMAX operators deploy the standard LTE spectrums, such as the 700MHz band.
"The NCC's most important task is to ensure that the reallocation of spectrum in the 700MHz band is as efficient as possible. The regulator must also facilitate changes in WiMAX operators' licensing conditions to deploy LTE," said Perera.
According to GSMA, worldwide WiMAX operators are using the 2.6GHz band, while China Mobile, the world's largest carrier by subscribers, as well as most Asian telecom operators, are now focusing on the deployment of LTE in the 700MHz band.
Currently Taiwan has six licensed WiMAX operators, which include Global Mobile Corp., VMAX Telecom Co., Far EasTone Telecommunications Co., International Telecom Corp., Tatung InfoComm Co. and Vee Telecom Multimedia Co. But the combined total number of their subscribers only stood at 58,300 as of March 2011. The low usage casts a shadow over the future survival of WiMAX wireless technology.
Spanning 219 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world's mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile communications industry, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organization.
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