Taiwan Government Sets Ambitious Goal for Its 4G Industry

The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) targets this year to inspire the island's handset and emerging telecom-industry supply chains to invest over NT$12 billion (US$4 billion) in crucial 4G technologies, so as to sharpen  manufacturers' competitiveness to vie for the estimated NT$750 billion (US$25 billion) of purchases by China's 4G service providers.

The projected investment goal represents a 17.5% increase from 2013's NT$102 billion (US$3.4 billion).

According to senior ministry officials, the island's supply chains of smart handheld devices and emerging telecom industry last year jointly invested around NT$60 billion (US$2 billion) of total investments in increasing production capacity for 4G chips and smartphone components, and developing end-user products. Around NT$30 billion (US$1 billion) went into boosting the efficiency of their telecom network.

They feel that the investments by the supply chains will persistently increase this year along with the island's 4G service entering into commercial operation in addition to China's plan to install around 500,000 4G cell towers in first-tier cities in one to two years beginning this year.

China's telecommunications authorities issued 4G licenses last year to major service providers, including China Telecom Co., Ltd., China Unicom Operations Ltd., and China Mobile Ltd. China Mobile plans to install 400,000 towers while China Unicom and China Telecom plan to install 50,000, respectively.

Ministry officials think that Taiwan's manufacturers have good prospects to win China's orders for tower components given their mature technologies. To help them win the contracts, the ministry will organize a trade meeting in Beijing in June between Taiwan's suppliers and China's  service providers.

The officials point out that Taiwan supplies the world's best tower components and small cell towers in terms of price-performance ratio, far outstripping South Korea. Local component heavyweights, including GemTek Technology Co., Ltd., ZyXEL Communications Corp., SerComm Corp., and Wistron NeWeb Corp. are expected to participate in the meeting. (KL)