A week in tech, June 16 - 22

Taiwan

Mobile/Wireless
• Far EasTone Telecommunications (FET), a mobile carrier, announced the launching of a marketing activity aimed at Taiwan's youth market. The offering will allow FET subscribers who call the "616-6" voice service of KG Telecom between now and August the chance to chat with their favorite Taiwanese pop icons. Users will also be given the chance to join FET's trips to northern, central, southern, and eastern Taiwan. Membership to KGT's voice service is free. Presently, more than 300,000 people make up "616's" customer base. FET, which acquired KGT three years ago, is counting on some star power to draw mobile phone subscribers to its voice services.

• High Tech Computer (HTC) announced its unveiling of its first two self-branded smartphones, including a Windows Mobile product that is loaded with Microsoft's Office applications. The device offers push e-mail capabilities and operates on the latest 3G wireless networks. HTC, a company based in Taiwan, makes mobile phones that are sold by most of the major wireless operators around the world. The two new handsets represent the first time the manufacturer will put its own name on a line of products.

Hardware
• Hon Hai Precision Industry, maker of electronics components, plans to offer up to $1.8 billion in shares overseas. The move, according to analysts, is the latest of a series of Taiwan technology firms to tap global capital markets to raise funds. The company disclosed that it is planning to issue up to 300 million new shares for the issue of GDRs. The planned issue follows the same moves by Powerchip Semiconductor and Nanya Technology, two Taiwan-based manufacturers of memory chips that announced earlier this year their plans to issue shares overseas in a bid to raise funds for the building of new factories. Hon Hai counts among its clients Dell and Hewlett-Packard. It looks to earn a net profit of around NT$54 billion ($1.6 billion) in 2006.


Hong Kong

Mobile/Wireless
• The launching of the i-mode data platform and the first “super 3G service” is putting Hong Kong’s mobile operators back in the limelight, analysts are saying. Observers note that the launch of the two services are highlighting the failed expectations regarding the present 3G services, the consumers gave better appraisals of i-mode as providing better access to the Internet. i-mode is talked about as giving more ease of use for developers as well as users. With its open platform based on regular internet standards, content developers are having ease in creating mobile applications at a lower cost. The slow download speeds demonstrated by 3G since its deployments have also prompted Hong Kong’s 3G operators to launch HSDPA services before the end of the year.

Ventures/Investments
• Hutchison Whampoa said it has bought an additional stake in its Indian GSM mobile business for at least$550 million. The acquisition would bring Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd.'s direct holdings to 47.4% in Hutchison Essar, which would bring the value of the Indian firm to $10.7 billion. Hutchison Essar is India's No. 3 mobile operator on the basis of its 18 million GSM customers.


Singapore/Malaysia/Philippines/Indonesia

Mobile/Wireless
• The Philippines National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said the wireless market is expected to peak soon to about 50 percent of the population. The report said the Philippines would see wireless subscriptions posting a growth to about 7.5 million. At present, the country has 40-percent penetration. At 50 percent, the country would be well behind South Korea and even Taiwan but will be almost in the same league as Japan and ahead of Thailand.

• Celcom, a subsidiary of the Telekom Malaysia group, announced the launching of its high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) services in Malaysia with Nokia's HSDPA solution. Under the agreement, Nokia is supplying the Nokia HSDPA solution with 3.6Mbps capability, a radio access network and transmission from its radio network portfolio.

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