Taiwan's Tatung InfoComm launched commercial
WiMAX service in Penghu County on April 27, making Tatung InfoComm the first
among six Taiwanese WiMAX licensees to offer commercial service,
Chinese-language United Daily News reported. At present, Penghu citizens can
access Tatung's high-speed broadband Internet service for NT$699 (US$21.2; US$1=NT$32.9)
a month in a preferential program. Voice service is slated for rollout in early
2010.
Tatung plans to invest a total of NT$5.0 billion
(US$152.0 million) in WiMAX deployment over the next five years. Service in
Kaohsiung City is scheduled to commence in July 2009 to coincide with the World
Games, while services in Kaohsiung County, Pintung County, and Hualien County
are expected to begin by the year-end.
Meanwhile, Tatung also announced two more
partners for its WiMAX deployment project. Malaysia's Green Packet has signed a
deal with Tatung to provide its Intouch Connection Management Platform to
enhance the connectivity capabilities of Tatung's WiMAX service, Nikkei reported
on May 1. By deploying Green Packet's Intouch Connection Management Platform,
Tatung is expected to achieve seamless mobility across networks - from WiMAX to
Wi-Fi and back, for instance.
In addition, Tatung plans to adopt Canada-based
Bridgewater Systems' WiMAX solutions for the delivery of VoIP (Voice over
Internet Protocol) and mobile broadband services. The Bridgewater solutions to
be deployed include Bridgewater Service Controller and Policy Controller, both
anchored by Bridgewater's Subscriber Data Broker, according to a press release
by the company on April 26.