TAIPEI – At a glitzy event in an upscale department store here, HTC launched its first WiMax phone for Taiwan, providing much needed ammunition for two service providers trying to make a go of the underdog 4G wireless technology.
The new model of the HTC One is the first handset supporting Taiwan’s WiMax frequency bands. Service providers hope the handset giant rolls out at least one more device in the fall.
Taiwan’s government has issued six WiMax spectrum licenses, but only four are active, said Lynn Lin, president of Vee Time Corp. (Taichung, Taiwan) that is using three of them. The company has about 100,000 WiMax subscribers, getting download speeds up to 6-8 Mbits/s compared to 500 Kbits/s to 1 Mbit/s for competing 3G cellular services, he said.
The country’s other WiMax provider, Global Mobile Corp. (Taipei), claims it has about 120,000 subscribers and is offering Voice over IP as part of its data plan which it claims delivers even faster rates. Both companies are under the gun to get a bigger slice of Taiwan’s more than 22 million cellular subscribers.
The national communications agency here plans to release its spectrum plan for LTE licenses in the second half of next year, said Lin. Taiwan’s six 3G carriers will try to snap up the LTE licenses to migrate the bulk of today’s 3G users to LTE.
Indeed, around the globe the race for which 4G technology will dominate is pretty much over with LTE the hands down winner. Taiwan is among the few remaining pockets around the globe yet to play out its 4G battle.
Vee Time and Global Mobile have about a year to grow their subscriber bases to compete with their 3G rivals, and only one handset so far to leverage. Given the odds, both carriers are keeping an open mind about the possibility of migrating their networks to LTE.
But for today the race is on for 4G in Taiwan. Vee Time’s Lin has shown his willingness to come up to speed fast, joining the company just two months ago from the banking sector. “I’ve been learning quickly,” said Lin.
The WiMax upstarts rely in part with user frustration with the highly congested 3G network, particularly in urban centers such as Taipei where services can be noticeably slow.
The new HTC One for Taiwan’s WiMax networks uses a so-called Incell display with improved brightness and contrast over the display used in the company’s Sensation handset.
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