Info World: Taiwanese government officials said on Monday they plan to make Taiwan the world’s largest testing ground for WiMax, and inked a pact with Intel to work together on the wireless broadband technology.
WiMax, also known as 802.16, is intended to provide users with wireless, high speed Internet access at far greater distances than the current mainstream wireless technology, Wi-Fi.
Taiwan hopes to become a leader in developing products for WiMax, such as PC cards and notebook computers, as well as broadband services, by making itself a leader in the technology, according to Ho Mei-yueh, Taiwan’s economics minister.
Taiwan chose to team up with Intel because the Santa Clara, California, chip maker is among the staunchest proponents of WiMax and already has WiMax chip products available, she said.
Officials said they hope to have WiMax network coverage for all of the island’s 23 million people by 2007.
