TAIPEI (WiMAX Day). At the start of the 2007 Taipei Summit Asia-Pacific WiMAX Conference & Exhibition yesterday, it was announced that Steve Chen, Taiwan’s Minister of Economic Affairs, signed a memorandum of understanding with NEC Corporation of Japan, Nortel of Canada and Rohde & Schwarz (R&S) of Germany.

The purpose of the memorandum of understanding was to inaugurate an agreement between the parties that seeks to increase purchases of WiMAX equipment and devices from manufacturers in Taiwan. Chen also noted that this is a step that will allow the parties to work in partnership with companies in Taiwan to develop future technology for WiMAX.

NEC Corporation also separately announced today that it plans to establish a mobile WiMAX research centre in Taiwan this year, according to a company press release. The research centre in Taiwan will become part of NEC’s global WiMAX business. NEC intends to open the centre to “local equipment vendors to enable the implementation of inter-operability tests, supporting service providers and software vendors in the development and verification of application services.”

WiMAX network for ITRI
The WiMAX equipment vendor Alvarion announced yesterday that its Mobile WiMAX solution has been chosen by the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Taiwan to provide Mobile WiMAX services at the ITRI campus in Hsinchu, co-existing with a WiFi network. According to a press release from Alvarion, “the deployment will serve two purposes on the campus: providing wireless services over WiMAX, and allowing the institute to conduct Mobile WiMAX research.” ITRI is a government-sponsored, primary R&D centre for telecommunications industry in Taiwan.

Two testing centres
It was also announced that the WiMAX Forum plans to establish two testing centres in Taiwan. According to a report in the Commercial Times, the new testing centres will aid equipment manufacturers in Taiwan in the process of testing and certifying WiMAX equipment, and could significantly increase the speed with which local manufacturers can get their products to market.

M-Taiwan
Many of the initiatives launched this week are supported by the Mobile Taiwan Program (M-Taiwan) which is a government supported program designed to support the development of WiMAX technology in Taiwan. With a budget of US$ 288 million, the M-Taiwan program has been swift in supporting many of these partnerships, equipment testing and network trials in Taiwan with global companies.