Intel, Taiwan Ink Deal to Speed up WiMax on Island

— -- Intel and the government of Taiwan signed an agreement Monday aimed at speeding up the development of WiMax in Taiwan and ensuring better WiMax compatibility among gear developers.

The agreement will see the creation of a new company in Taiwan that will ensure interoperable WiMax gear so users will be able to roam among WiMax wireless broadband Internet networks anywhere. Interoperability has been a major question for WiMax due to concerns that equipment vendors are creating products that may not work together.

Taiwan is already one of the world's largest makers of WiMax networking equipment, including base stations and PC cards. Companies on the island shipped US$159 million worth of WiMax gear last year, up from just $22.6 million in 2006, according to the Market Intelligence Center, a publicly-funded researcher in Taiwan. Much of the equipment went to vendors such as Motorola and Alcatel through contract manufacturing agreements, but some of it also came from Taiwanese companies.

Intel will also use its WiMax testing experience to help Taiwanese companies develop products that work with global WiMax networks. WiMax wireless network equipment includes base stations, add-on WiMax-cards for laptop PCs and other products people need to access broadband wireless Internet signals.

"This cooperation shows the commitment between Intel and Taiwan to develop WiMax," said Shih Yen-shiang, vice minister of economic affairs in Taiwan.

The company and government offices have not yet determined the size of the investment amount, the investment target nor the business model or operations of the business entity they plan to set up to boost WiMax. These details are expected to be finalized by the end of this year, according to a joint statement.

Taiwan has been on the forefront of investing in and promoting WiMax technology for use in Taiwan and to boost production of WiMax gear among the island's manufacturers.

Taiwan launched the M-Taiwan program to ensure that people in locations all over Taiwan, including remote mountain villages and island huts, will be able to access the Internet wirelessly. WiMax is part of that program. The government has offered research grants and co-investment to companies on the island to help jump start WiMax services.

The size of such investments has not been revealed. But in a project by First International Telecom (Fitel) to deploy and test WiMax services in Taipei, the government put up NT$400 million of the total NT$600 million (US$19.7 million) investment made by the company, according to Fitel President Charlie CY Wu.