Monthly Archives: April 2012

First Telecom not allowed to cancel part of services

First International Telecom Corp’s (大眾電信) plan to suspend its services in Greater Taichung and Greater Kaohsiung was rejected by the National Communications Commission (NCC), which said it was not part of the mobile carrier’s restructuring plan.

First International Telecom, the nation’s only lower-power personal handyphone system (PHS), had filed an application with the commission to streamline its business by cutting its telecoms services to those two areas for a three-year period: from March 1 to Feb. 28, 2015.

The financially strapped telecoms operator had obtained the local district courts’ approval in 2009 for a restructuring.

NCC spokesperson Chen Jeng-chang (陳正倉) said the company should continue its services in central and southern Taiwan.

According to the commission, First International Telecom still has about 10,000 customers in Greater Taichung and Greater Kaohsiung. As of February, First International Telecom had about 800,000 mobile subscribers nationwide.

Earlier this week, the company reported that revenue last month fell to NT$84.36 million, down 32 percent from NT$124 million a year ago, but up slightly by 1.3 percent from February’s NT$83.26 million.

The firm lost NT$608 million in the first half of last year.

Separately, the NCC decided on Wednesday to limit the number of cable home shopping channels on cable television services to no more than 12, adding that the rule would apply to digital cable services.

Operators of home shopping channels will be required to obtain a six-year operating license from the NCC before they can go on air after the amendment to the Satellite Broadcasting Act (衛星廣播電視法) is passed by the legislature, the commission added.

http://www.taipeitimes.net/News/biz/archives/2012/04/13/2003530177

News from the Taipei Times

Mobile phone calls still too expensive: watchdog

The average mobile phone call charges of the top three telecommunications firms in Taiwan are only slightly lower than those in Japan, but higher than those in Singapore, China and Hong Kong, the Consumers’ Foundation said yesterday.

The foundation said that although the National Communications Commission (NCC) announced last month that the nation’s top five telecoms firms would reduce their mobile phone call charges, the average cut of 3.58 percent was still insufficient to assuage the financial burden of users.

Consumers’ Foundation chairperson Joann Su (蘇錦霞) said that while telecoms operators had reduced their fees three years in a row, the reductions were too small.

Consumers’ Foundation secretary-general Chen Chih-yi (陳智義) said the foundation conducted a survey last month and this month on the mobile phone call charges of the top three operators — Chunghwa Telecom Co, Taiwan Mobile Co and Far EasTone Telecommunications Co.

Compared with call charges by the top companies in neighboring countries, regardless of which fee plan was chosen or whether the calls were made to users of the same service provider or a different provider, the rates charged were many times higher than those in Singapore, China and Hong Kong, Chen said, adding that one of the cheapest rates in Taiwan was 18 times the rate of a plan in Hong Kong.

NCC statistics showed that there were 2.086 million 3G mobile phone users last year in Taiwan, Su said, as she urged the commission to investigate whether telecoms companies were still charging too much for mobile calls.

Chen said the firms should cut their rates by about 50 percent. While the fees would still be higher than those in most neighboring countries, they would be more customer-friendly, he said.

In other news, the Executive Yuan’s Consumer Protection Committee said people would be entitled to a refund on concert tickets starting next month at the earliest, after a draft amendment is approved by the legislature.

After pop signer A-mei’s (阿妹) concert ended a few days ago, the committee received complaints from people who said they had been refused a refund by the organizer because they lost their tickets.

They were barred from entering the concert venue, even though they had provided proof that they had purchased tickets, committee official Chen Hsing-hung (陳星宏) said, adding that 38 ticket disputes have been reported since January.

To protect consumers’ rights, the committee is considering a modification to the regulation on the standard form contract for concert or art performance tickets, so that consumers can ask for a refund on their tickets within a set period of time before the performance takes place, Chen said.

The organizers should allow customers to seek a refund or change their tickets 10 days prior to a performance and they should not charge more than 10 percent of the ticket price as a transaction fee, Chen said.

However, the committee said the regulations should only apply to tickets for designated seats.

http://www.taipeitimes.net/News/taiwan/archives/2012/04/14/2003530314

News from the Taipei Times

 

Taiwan partners with Google to display national treasures online

Taipei, April 11 (CNA) The National Palace Museum announced Wednesday it has partnered with Google to display its treasured artworks and galleries online, joining 150 other museums around the world in a large-scale artworks digitalization project.
This arrangement will enable overseas audiences to appreciate not only Chinese historical treasures but also the Taipei-based museum, in which the artworks are housed, museum director Chou Kung-shin said at a press conference.

“This is an encounter between art, culture and technology,” Google Taiwan Managing Director Chien Lee-feng said in his opening remarks at the event.

Noting the convenience of technology, he said more than 20 million visitors worldwide have so far traveled the globe via the Google Art Project and browsed through the database of 30,000 digital art pieces from 40 countries.

“This means the National Palace Museum has a chance to attract foreign visitors to Taiwan by increasing their desire to actually view the artwork in person,” he said.

Eighteen famed artworks from the Taipei museum, including 15 artifacts and three paintings dating as far back as 1000 B.C., can be viewed by the public on the Internet as of Wednesday.

“The Picture of the New Year,” a painting from the Song Dynasty (960-1276), has been chosen as one of 46 artworks that can be viewed with “gigapixel” photo capturing technology.

The image is so refined that users can zoom in and examine the craftsmanship in detail, a Google engineer said as he showcased the website.

“You can even see the insects hidden in the Jadeite Cabbage,” he said, referring to an exquisite jade carving housed in the museum.

Taiwan is one of seven museums located in the Asia Pacific region to take part in the project, which was launched last year, and is the only one to exclusively display Chinese cultural heritage.

http://focustaiwan.tw/SearchNews/hyDetailws.aspx?qid=201204110024&q=internet

News from Focus Taiwan

‘What to make’ the new challenge for Taiwanese manufacturers: expert

Taipei, April 11 (CNA) Taiwanese high-tech manufacturers will need to identify the “right” products to produce if they are to succeed in a market where electronic devices continue to proliferate, a technology observer said Wednesday.

Kevin Kelly, a former editor of the Whole Earth Catalog and co-founder of Wired magazine, said that Taiwanese manufacturers depending on Apple Inc. or Google Inc. products will see increasing species of devices in the near term, helping them to maintain growth.

“There will be more devices made in five years, more kinds of devices and more quantities. So people who make these devices will have no shortage of opportunities,” Kelly said at a media briefing.

He predicted, however, that technology would become more specific and more specialized based on the rising demand for such devices and that the trend would affect manufacturers.

“I think that it will become easier and easier to make things, and it will become more and more difficult to decide what to make,” Kelly said. “Technology allows us to make anything we can imagine, but people just don’t buy anything. They only want certain things.”

“So the process of designing and coming up with something that is worth making becomes more difficult, and I think that’s a real challenge for Taiwanese manufacturers,” he noted.

Known as a “digital prophet,” Kelly was invited by the Taipei-based Business Today magazine to deliver a speech in Taiwan Wednesday afternoon.

Following the speech, he was to participate in a panel discussion with Asustek Computer Inc. Chairman Jonney Shih and Minister without Portfolio Simon Chang on the topic “Discover the Next 1,000 Days of Digital Life.”

http://focustaiwan.tw/SearchNews/hyDetailws.aspx?qid=201204110013&q=computer

News from Focus Taiwan

Taiwan needs ‘design thinking’ in cloud computing era: executive

Taipei, April 11 (CNA) Taiwan will need to combine its engineering strength with more fundamental research and “design thinking” in order to compete with other countries in a cloud computing era, Asustek Computer Inc.’s Chairman Jonney Shih said Wednesday.

Noting that Taiwan established its own fundamental technology for personal computers 30 years ago, Shih said he is confident that Taiwanese engineers can outperform their counterparts worldwide.

However, “in this new era of ubiquitous cloud computing, that’s not enough,” Shih said during a panel discussion with technology observer Kevin Kelly and Minister Without Portfolio Simon Chang.

“We need to have even more fundamental research, the kind that’s at the people level,” he said. “I think in this regard, maybe Taiwan has been left behind by some other advanced countries such as the United States, Japan and Germany.”

In addition, Taiwan needs to develop “design thinking,” incorporating art, beauty and user experience, which will take time and effort, Shih said.

Kevin Kelly, a former editor of the Whole Earth Catalog and co-founder of Wired magazine, said Taiwan has a culture of producing engineers, but it is only half the equation for success.

“Being able to make something is not sufficient, even you make it well,” he said.

“The other half, which is sort of design approach, marketing and human factors, is the important part that I think will be a complement to your strong engineering,” he added.

Meanwhile, Simon Chang said that there are many hard-working engineers in Taiwan, but that does not necessarily mean they are good engineers.

“If you are looking for innovation, it will be very difficult for a busy engineer to be creative and innovative,” Chang said.

He suggested that Taiwanese high-tech firms look at the methods adopted by search engine Google Inc., which allows its employees 20 percent free time per day to help promote creativity.
http://focustaiwan.tw/SearchNews/hyDetailws.aspx?qid=201204110042&q=computer

News from the Focus Taiwan

Strong growth of global notebook shipments forecast for Q2

Taipei, April 13 (CNA) Global notebook computer shipments in the second quarter of this year are expected to grow dramatically, following better-than-expected figures in the January to March period, a Taipei-based analyst firm said Friday.

Digitimes Research forecast worldwide notebook shipments of 55 million units in the second quarter, a 17.6 percent quarterly increase and a 9.5 percent rise year-on-year.

“This foreshows a full recovery of the industry in 2012,” said Joanne Chien, Digitimes senior analyst.

She predicted that global notebook shipments for the whole year will reach 236 million units, up 17 percent from 2011, with the introduction of more low- to medium-priced models and the release of Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 8 operating system.

In terms of brand breakdown, Asustek Computer Inc. and Apple Inc. are both expected to post 30 percent growth, with the former very likely to replace Dell Inc. as the world’s fourth largest notebook brand, she said.

However, Samsung Electronics Co. and Toshiba Corp., which also did well in the first three months, might have a hard time in the second quarter, Chien said.

The South Korean and Japanese companies will not be able to maintain their momentum, as they are struggling to keep up with the average growth of the industry, she said.

As for the Ultrabook market, global shipments are forecast at 1.5 million units in the second quarter, approximately the same as the expected strong showing by Apple’s MacBook Air.

However, Ultrabooks will continue to trail in the notebook market, accounting only 2.7 percent of the total, Chien forecast.

http://focustaiwan.tw/SearchNews/hyDetailws.aspx?qid=201204130006&q=computer

News from the Focus Taiwan

TAITRA Starts Exploring Markets in Central & Eastern Europe

Taipei, April 10, 2012 (CENS)–Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) organized a trade promotion delegation to central and eastern Europe in the first week of April, the first such delegation led by TAITRA to the area.

The group was reportedly composed of 43 manufacturers, with 80% being small and medium enterprises in the information technology & telecom, hardware, machinery, textile, biotech, auto parts, and health food sectors.

Besides visiting large cities as Moscow of Russia, Istanbul of Turkey, Budapest of Hungary, and Warsaw of Poland, TAITRA organized over 1,000 one-on-one meetings between the suppliers and buyers, which have generates business exceeding US$20 million.

TAITRA indicated that the average per capita income in the above-mentioned four countries was US$14,000 in 2011, during which Taiwan’s exports to central and eastern Europe totaled US$4.769 billion, showing a sharp annual growth of 14.7%, higher than the average growth of 12.3% in total exports and much higher than 4.6% growth in exports to EU, figures that motivate TAITRA to explore these markets.

http://cens.com/cens/html/en/news/news_inner_39896.html

News from CENS.com Taiwan

Gov’t Urged to Serve as Growth Locomotive for Taiwan’s Cloud Computing Industry

Taipei, April 12, 2012 (CENS)–Taipei Computer Association (TCA) chairman J.T. Wang, also doubling as the chairman of Acer Inc., has urged the Taiwanese government to pour more public budgets into developing government cloud services to serve as the growth locomotive for the industry.

At a TV interview program organized by Taiwan’s main news agency UDN Group, Wang noted that the government’s resolution to set up government cloud services is key to success of the industry’s development, so the government should dedicate its resources to developing such services instead of building highways, for example.

To tout Taiwanese government’s efforts, Wang cited his experience in visiting an officially-founded cloud computing demonstration center in Chongqing, western China, saying that cloud services have been heavily promoted by the city government as a boom there, which indicates that government’s push can effectively make consumers more familiar with cloud services.

Wang called for the Taiwanese government to set up cloud services of policing and security, for instance, or entertainment and tourist information, which are always on demand and usable for the public. Through inaugurating its cloud services, the government can generate sustainable business chances to both integrated information service providers and hardware developers, while giving them an incentive to upgrade their technologies.

To further emphasize the necessity of government cloud services, Wang also pointed to the significance of system integration of RFID (radio frequency identification) technology, a broadband network and cloud services, which allows consumers of pork products, for instance, to easily access needed information on place of origin and whether the pork contains ractopamine.

Wang also stated that the government should set a distinct objective to achieve and pinpoint target markets before directing efforts to its cloud services. By doing so, he said, Taiwan is more likely to stay ahead of the global trend for cloud computing in the future.

http://cens.com/cens/html/en/news/news_inner_39926.html

News from CENS.com Taiwan

Taiwan ranks 11th in WEF global networked readiness survey

Washington, April 4 (CNA) Taiwan has been ranked 11th in networked readiness in a global survey released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) Wednesday.

The Switzerland-based group compiles the annual survey to measure the propensity for 142 economies around the world to exploit the opportunities offered by information and communications technology (ICT).

Among the Asian economies studied in the WEF’s Global Information Technology 2012 Report, Taiwan lags behind only second-ranked Singapore and is ahead of 12th-ranked South Korea, 13th-ranked Hong Kong and 18th-ranked Japan.

The WEF bases its rankings on the Networked Readiness Index, a composite of three components — the environment for ICT offered by a given economy (market, political and regulatory, infrastructure), the readiness of the economy’s key stakeholders (individuals, businesses and governments) to use ICT, and the usage of ICT among these categories.

According to the latest WEF report, the world’s most developed countries dominate the top of the networked readiness rankings, with Sweden heading the list.

Finland is third, followed by Denmark, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Norway. The United States is in eighth place, with Canada and the United Kingdom rounding out the top 10.

In contrast, the report said, emerging economies such as BRICS — the acronym used to refer to surging economies in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — are hampered by challenges when it comes to adopting ICT.

While the BRICS countries are highly competitive in the global market, they generally end up in lower rankings in the global networked readiness list, the report said. For instance, the highest ranking BRICS nation is China in 51st place, with India at 69th position.

The WEF report cited a shortage of skilled workers and flaws in institutional environments for businesses as elements that stifle entrepreneurship and innovation in emerging economies.

It further said ICT development has resulted in a new digital divide in sub-Saharan Africa as countries in the region are low in networked readiness.

Soumitra Dutta, the Roland Berger chaired professor of business and technology and professor of business and technology at the INSEAD business school, who is one of the editors of the report, said networked readiness has become an important indicator used by major countries around the world to enhance their competitiveness.

In compiling the index, the WEF said it has combined data from publicly available sources with feedback from a survey of more than 15,000 executives.
http://focustaiwan.tw/SearchNews/hyDetailws.aspx?qid=201204050007&q=information+technology

News from the Focus Taiwan

 

Telecom operator calls for tiered data pricing plans for mobile users

Taipei, April 4 (CNA) Taiwan Mobile Co. has been urging consumers and the country’s regulator of telecommunications to accept tiered data pricing plans to ease the burden on mobile networks.

The country’s second largest mobile operator is presently negotiating with the National Communications Commission (NCC) over the impact of “all-you-can-eat” data plans, which have led to increasing traffic on the existing 3G networks, Taiwan Mobile Co-President Cliff Lai told a media briefing recently.

“If consumers still prefer using ‘all-you-can-eat’ data plans, the launch of high-speed 4G networks will not be able to solve the problem,” Lai said.

“However, if we can come up with a tiered data pricing proposal that the NCC accepts, we will quickly be able to launch networks with speeds of between 21 and 42 megabytes per second,” he added.

Taiwan Mobile rolled out a trial service of its 21M high-speed network in Taipei and New Taipei City in July last year, with coverage expanded to Taichung and Kaohsiung in August, and to Taoyuan City, Hsinchu City and Tainan in September.

However, the 21M network was only available in metropolitan areas due to economies of scale and the high cost of upgrading the backbone equipment of base stations, according to the company.

“If the government hopes Taiwan can move toward 4G networks with LTE (long-term evolution) technology, it is necessary for a proportion of mobile users to change their usage habits,” Lai said.

He added that Taiwan Mobile will continue working with the NCC to come up with tiered pricing plans that solve the problem of heavy traffic on networks but do not affect the rights of normal mobile users.

Earlier in February, NCC spokesman Chen Jeng-chang said the commission had asked telecom operators to upgrade their network infrastructure and review their “all-you-can-eat” data plans, according to local media reports.

Such data plans were launched in the early stage of 3G networks to attract mobile users, but the rationality of the pricing system needs to be reviewed now as more and more consumers are used to using networks for a long period of time, Chen said.

Meanwhile, Minister without Portfolio Simon Chang also said recently that the existing data plans have made operators less willing to upgrade their mobile networks to 4G technology.

To avoid making traffic problems worse, Chang suggested that carriers should adopt tiered pricing plans for mobile networks based on access speed, a method that is similar to the pricing system for fixed broadband networks.
http://focustaiwan.tw/SearchNews/hyDetailws.aspx?qid=201204040016&q=telecom

News from  Focus Taiwan