By Jens Kastner Last year’s 4G spectrum auction was much fiercer than expected, due mainly to the addition of two new players in the telecom sector – Ambit Microsystems and Taiwan Star. Ambit belongs to Terry Gou’s Hon Hai Group and Taiwan Star to the Wei family’s Ting Hsin International, both Taiwan-based conglomerates that made…
The Suhua Highway, now under construction, should reduce accidents, but will it spoil one of the more pristine parts of the island? By Jens Kastner From time immemorial, people travelling overland to and from Taiwan’s east coast have done so at the risk of life and limb. But at long last the days of landslides…
Taiwan’s 4G operators made up for lost time by rolling out their service in just about half a year after licensing. But competition is fierce, especially with some new players joining the fray, leading to intense pricing pressure. While consumers will be happy with both the rates and the fast transmission speeds, the high cost…
By Jens Kastner First-generation mobile telecommunication (1G) was analog, 2G was digital, 3G provided mobile data communication and web-browsing, and now 4G’s faster speeds make video streaming easy and convenient. Although 4G was only recently launched in Taiwan, already the industry is looking ahead to the next generation of mobile data transmission: 5G. At this…
By Jens Kastner As a measure to accelerate Taiwan’s development of 4G wireless services, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) plans to fund operators of smart city applications starting in 2015 for a total of three years. Paid for by a NT$15 billion (US$500 million) fund allocated in late 2013 to speed up 4G development…
Over-the-top content is a hard nut to crack for Taiwan’s cable TV stations, telecom operators, and regulators. By Timothy Ferry & Jens Kastner As people increasingly use communication apps such as Line and WeChat through fixed line, WiFi, or with mobile flat rates, telecom operators over the past four years have seen their revenue dive…
