Taiwan inks MOU with NEC, Nortel, R&S for WiMAX

The Taiwan Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with NEC, Nortel WiMAX & Wireless Mesh and Rohde & Schwarz (R&S) for cooperation in WIMAX technology at the 2007 Taipei Summit Asia-Pacific WiMAX Conference & Exhibition.

This is according to a Digitimes report, which stated that MOEA minister Steve Chen signed the agreement on behalf of the Taiwan government, along with Sony president Kaoru Yano, Nortel president and LG-Nortel chairman Peter Mackinnon, and R&S president and COO Christian Leicher.

Chen disclosed the three companies will increase procurement of WiMAX equipment and devices form Taiwan and will assist Taiwan-based partners develop 4G technology. Additionally, NEC and Nortel will make specific interfaces of their core network systems open to Taiwan-based makers and cooperate with at least two firms to develop advanced technologies of MIMO smart antennae, base stations and 4G communications, Chen said.

The Taiwan government has allocated a budget of $288.2 million, $210 billion of which allotted for the Mobile Taiwan (M-Taiwan) Program, to boost WiMAX R&D to make Taiwan-based manufacturers globally competitive or even leading in the technology, Chen explained. Through projects under M-Taiwan, the three international companies will deploy trial spots around Taiwan as a test-bed for testing their newly developed technologies and applications, he added.