Tenth Asia Telecom & Information Exchange takes place in Taipei: WiMAX tops list of 4G contenders Bryan Chuang, Taipei; Adam Hwang, DigiTimes.com [Friday 8 April 2005] http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20050408A5023.html The 10th annual forum of the Asia Telecom & Information Exchange (ATIE) is taking place in Taipei on April 6 through 8, with Taiwanese representatives indicating that WiMAX (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) has the potential of becoming the 4G (fourth-generation) mobile communication technology of choice. ATIE has seven member associations from seven Asian countries including the Association of Telecommunications Industry of Singapore (ATIS), the Communications and Information Network Association of Japan (CIAJ), the Korea Association of Information & Telecommunication (KAIT), the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association (TEEMA), the Internet & Telecom Association of Hong Kong (ITAHK), the China Association of Communication Enterprises (CACE), and the Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association of India (TEMA). Chief technology officer Arthur Wang of BeyondSpot Technology, a Taiwanese maker of telecommunication components, said at the forum that the wide range of 3G standards including Qualcomm’s WCDMA and CDMA2000, TD-SCDMA (developed by China), UWC (universal wireless communications)-136 proposed by the US and Japan’s DoCoMo 3G, makes 3G inferior to the universal standard WiMAX in a market that needs more standards convergence. In addition, WiMAX has the potential for larger penetration and spatial coverage than 3G standards, Wang noted. Although there are disputes regarding whether WiMAX can become a 4G standard, operators of 3G communication services are paying close attention to the technological advantages of WiMAX, Wang added. Myung-sun Choi, president of KAIT, said that South Korea will upgrade its mobile communication technologies from 3G to 3.5G this year and further to OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplex)-based 4G with bandwidth of up to 100Mbps by 2007. CIAJ vice president Hideki Yagi introduced to the forum the u-Japan project, Japanese government’s plans to create “ubiquitous-net” Japan in 2010 which enables connection of devices of any kind to the Internet at any place and any time with digital TV to be a main gate to an information society. © DigiTimes Publication. All rights reserved. |