To make Taiwan the largest WiMAX production base, Taiwan's MOEA (Ministry of Economic Affairs, ROC) has announced that they will work with Intel to deploy WiMAX in Taiwan with an initial investment of NT$1.1 billion. The Taiwanese government plans to build ten mobile cities and 15 wireless application demonstration areas by 2007 through investing NT$37 billion in the next four years. MOEA will coordinate allocation of frequencies and provide resources for WiMAX field trial. Intel will offer technology and experience needed while assisting contract makers in developing WiMAX equipment and solutions, thus assuring compatibility with global carriers' network.

 

Currently, the MOEA has qualified ten players for this project, including Mitac, Vibo, Uni-President, Acer, Chunghwa Telecom, FITEL, Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom, Tatung, Sparq, and Far Eastone Telecommunications. These companies have to propose their wireless broadband plans and determine locations for their plans in the next examination to win the government's subsidy. By the end of October, Intel will select four partners from eight Taiwanese companies to help them develop WiMAX technology compatible with IEEE 802.16. These candidates include Asus, Foxconn, USI, Wistron NeWeb, CyberTAN, Wollemi, Accton, and Zyxel.