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The Taiwan government last week pledged money and political clout towards the development of the

WiMax communications standard on the island.

Signing a joint-collaboration deal with chipmaker Intel, Taiwan's economics ministry pledged NT$1.1 billion ($253 million) for WiMax development projects next year alone.

'WiMax is the most important technology selected under the 'M-Taiwan' project,' said Lin Ferng-ching,  minister without portfolio responsible for IT policy development.

Taiwan's  four-year 'Mobile Taiwan' project, initiated  at the beginning of this year, aims to boost   mobile infrastructure and technology  and help IT manufacturers get a head start in the development of equipment for export.

Mr Lin said at least NT$7 billion of a total NT$37 billion in funding for M-Taiwan would  be used for WiMax research and development.

WiMax is a high-speed, high-bandwidth wireless technology being developed primarily as a substitute for the last mile of a network connection into a building.

The ministry and Intel will jointly set up test networks so that manufacturers and service providers can test their products and fine-tune the technology.

Taiwanese companies are top developers and manufacturers of modems, routers and wireless access points. Adding government weight to the development of

WiMax is expected to give the new technology a leg up against competing technologies such as 3G and fibre optics.

To date, no WiMax products have been certified or produced,  but a plugfest in Beijing next month is expected to kick off the first round of WiMax certifications.

If  this goes smoothly,  the first WiMax products, such as routers and access points, could be shipped in the first half of next year.

The economics ministry also pledged to facilitate the process of radio spectrum allocation, an important step in ensuring WiMax is allowed to be deployed.

With technological development proceeding smoothly, world business models and government policies around the world have yet to be completely formulated.

Initially slated as a high-speed alternative to ADSL or cable internet, the development of voice over internet protocol technology gives WiMax the potential to compete with 3G cellular telephony.

Operators around the world have spent billions of dollars on 3G licence fees and network rollouts, and the advent of WiMax is expected to be met with stiff opposition.

Licensing and spectrum allocation  are likely to be the main concern. Both 2G and 3G wireless technology require licences and spectrum allocation. Wi-fi, however, has an open spectrum that does not require a licence. It is this  open standard that has helped the proliferation of Wi-fi access points and devices.

'A carrier like us is suspicious of unlicensed bandwidth ... we prefer to use licensed bandwidth,' said Feng Chian,  vice-president of fixed-line operator Taiwan Fixed Network, a division of cellular operator Taiwan Mobile.

Whether licensed or unlicensed, having WiMax added to the list of networking alternatives in Taiwan is likely to force the entire sector to improve  its equipment and services.



WiMax projects win $253m boost