upn-taipei news-electronic-2011-01-10-19-IEEE 802.16 comes to Taiwan again

環球郵報 - 記者- 鄢國榮 - 臺北市 報導】
upn - reporter-kent yen- taipei city report

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IEEE 802.16 comes to Taiwan again for the 2nd time with a total of 3 events, 20 countries and more than 400 people
With WiMAX, Taiwan has successfully entered the global stage for 4Gstandardization. January 10th kicks off a week-long series of events from ITRI and the Committee of Communications Industry Development of the Ministry of Economic Affairs as co-organizers of three important conferences namely the 71st IEEE 802.16 working session, 2011 Taipei WiMAX Summit, and WiMAX Forum Global Operator Summit at The Grand Hotel. The three events are gathering industry professionals of the 802.16 standards, WiMAX equipment manufacturing, and telecommunication operators. More than 400 people from about 20 countries are in attendance at these events.
The 2011 Taipei WiMAX Summit has invited Dr. Roger Marks and chairpeople of various working groups to share with the audience the technological development of IMT-Advanced, and 802.16m as well as the application of the technologies e.g. Smart Grid and Machine-to-Machine. This is a platform for the keynote speakers and local businesses to connect on global trends, network with international experts and communication brands, together with offering these key industry specialists the opportunity to gain a better understanding of Taiwan’s wireless communication industries.
Taiwan’s Minister of State Chang, of the Executive Yuan, remarked this summit was one of the most important events in 2011 for WiMAX manufacturers and operators. He further added the M-Taiwan Project has attracted global attention from the WiMAX community. The Minister concluded his remarks in adding that with IMT-Advanced driving forward, Taiwan will not be absent from the mainstream; and that Taiwan’s government is committed to technology policy tools to best serve the citizens with the latest advances.

ITRI and Committee of Communications Industry Development’s Director Dr. Wu remarks embraced recognition that this is the second time that Taiwan has hosted the IEEE session meeting.† The first time was in 2005 when the 802.16e standard was finalized and the M-Taiwan Project established with the purpose of creating a complete WiMAX ecosystem in Taiwan.† It thus brings Taiwan a great honor as the 16m standard is about to be finalized here, representing Taiwan’s enhanced position in WiMAX and the 4G arena.††Dr. Wu made special note of Taiwan’s high-speed rail next stage deployment with speeds of over 300 kilometers an hour having been reached on the 345 kilometer high-speed rail system.

Roger Marks then took the stage and opened the summit by noting that Taiwan’s local community uses the 802.16 meetings to engage domestic manufacturers and further stated that meetings here have resulted in people becoming active in the working groups. Dr. Marks went on to give a historical background of 802.16 and noted that 802.16 evolves by changes to the standard, always bringing in the latest technology and meeting the latest needs. His final remarks included comments addressing press misconceptions of the past few months about 4G, and noted that “4G” may still be applied to forerunner technologies such as WiMAX.
†

Ron Resnick, Chairman of WiMAX Forum, offered observations during a media interview that global roaming is critical for WiMAX to become a widely deployed wireless broadband network. Informa forecasts that the global roaming market is expected to see an 86 percent growth in the next five years and reach revenues of US$67 billion in 2015.
Users of 4 domestic operators can roam across Taiwan; recently signed international 4G roaming agreements such as the one executed by Global Mobile of Taiwan and Sprint are just one example. With ever-expanding accords, ITRI, Packet 1 (P1), Sprint, and WiMAX Forum are also holding the 2011 WiMAX Forum Global Operator Summit today. The summit expects to bridge all businesses across the value chain and expedite global roaming to provide users with better quality and convenience.
In addition, WiMAX Forum is organizing its CWG/NWG/TWG face-to-face meeting in Taipei, Taiwan from January 17 to 21, 2011 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. This continues to show that Taiwan’s continuing WiMAX efforts have WiMAX Forum support. Moreover, to extend its influence in 4G technological developments, Taiwan is engaged in 3GPP and will host a 3GPP standard meeting this coming February.
Contact:
Ching-Tarng Hsieh,
Engineering Director of Information and Communications Research Laboratories (ICL) of ITRI,
Director of the WiMAX Forum Taiwan Office
(chsieh@itri.org.tw, (O) 03-591-7379, (M) 0937997385)