After receiving an order for the trial system from Tatung in January of this year, NEC worked in collaboration with Tatung to prepare for implementation of the trial in Hualien city, which is located in the eastern part of Taiwan. Hualien city plans to utilize the system for tourism and medical services in the future. In this trial, NEC demonstrated internet access and video streaming service which achieved 6 Mbps throughput per user. It also verified the excellent performance of NEC's WiMAX system by realizing smooth handover between base stations, and stable in-vehicle access while running. As a result, Tatung plans to acquire an official WiMAX business license in June. NEC will aim to install commercial systems in Hualien, as well as other service areas.
This trial was conducted as part of the "M-Taiwan" project being lead by the Taiwan. M-Taiwan is a national project to establish a networked information society and to cultivate IT-related industries in the domestic market. Taiwan aims to upgrade its IT infrastructure based on wireless broadband application technology and cultivate domestic industries related to WiMAX, including application services, which are one of the major objectives of this project.
NEC signed a memorandum of understanding with a Taiwan's affiliated organization in February this year as part of the M-Taiwan project to cooperate with Taiwanese hardware and software industries in the development of WiMAX related products and applications. This will play an important role in the spread of WiMAX.
Many government and telecom carrier officials are expected to participate in the Asia Pacific WiMAX Conference & Exhibition (May 14 – 15), which is sponsored by the Taiwan. NEC is ready to receive existing and potential customers at the event where NEC President Kaoru Yano will make the keynote speech and NEC will present live demonstrations of WiMAX with Tatung.
NEC plans to use the valuable experience gained in the Tatung project to deliver integrated network solutions worldwide.
