A week in tech, May 26 - June 2

Taiwan
Internet
• Taiwan hosted 8.21 million internet domain names in January of 2006, according to the Focus on Internet News & Data and Innovation Diffusion Enabler & Activator of the Advanced e-Commerce Institute (FIND) under the government-sponsored Institute for Information Industry (III). According to the study, Taiwan's 8.2- million hosted internet domain names consisted of 3.9 million for the top-level domain ".tw" and 4.2 million for the second-level domain ".hinet.net,". The numbers, which can be seen as a rough indicator of Taiwan's internet hardware serving capacity and size of internet user base, accounted for 2.1 percent of the 394.9-million hosted internet domains around the world.
• The Graduate Institute of Business Administration and Electrical Engineering departments of National Taiwan University (NTU) announced its collaboration with Nortel in a WiMAX broadband service trial that includes interoperability testing using a variety of wireless devices and multimedia applications. The NTU WiMAX lab trial site supports field-testing and demonstration of a wide range of high-bandwidth multimedia applications – such as VoIP, video streaming, video surveillance and a WiMAX/WLAN handover to 3G networks. The trial will be using PDAs, laptop computers, Wi-Fi handsets and WiMAX customer premise equipment. Earlier, Nortel previously announced a Center of Excellence for WiMax Devices in Taipei. In a separate development, Nortel has signed an agreement with Chunghwa Telecom to deploy a WiMAX solution in the operator's experimental park to create an environment for testing WiMAX and wireless mesh integration.


Hong Kong
Information Technology
• PCCW Solutions said it is considering expanding its operations outside Greater China this year. The move comes after the company secured high-profile public sector contracts in Hong Kong. PCCW Solutions, the PCCW Group’s information and communications technology services arm, stated that the new areas for expansion that Asia and Europe are offering would be generally for e-government projects, with projects ranging from electronic passport systems and smart identity card projects to government financial information systems. The Asia-Pacific IT services market is valued at some $37.6 billion this year, up from $34.8 billion in 2005, according to Gartner.

Mobile/Wireless
• Hutchison Telecommunications International (HTIL) and Communications Authority of Thailand Telecom (CAT Telecom) announced that there is ongoing an negotiation between the two companies that is expected to lead to a deal conclusion. If concluded, the deal would see HTIL launching 3G services throughout Thailand early next year. Loss-making Hutchison CAT Wireless Multimedia is a marketing joint venture between state-owned CAT Telecom and HTIL that sells CDMA2000 1x mobile service in 25 central provinces, including Bangkok. The CDMA network is owned by another Hutchison unit and CAT Telecom and HTIL share revenue from the business. CAT Telecom is also expecting full completion of its CDMA 2000 1x network in 51 provinces by January. HTIL maintains operations in seven markets, including Thailand. Out of this market, only India and Israel declared profits in 2005. Reports have described the negotiations between CAT Telecom and HTIL as having been difficult. Outside of the deal, several foreign firms and Thai operators were reported as having talked with CAT Telecom on the possibility of tie-ups.

Singapore/Malaysia/Philippines/Indonesia
Mobile/Wireless
• Globe Telecom of the Philippines announced the signing of an agreement with Mobile ESPN to provide sports content to clients on their cellular phones. The deal comes under the Bridge Mobile Alliance, brings together seven mobile phone companies in the Asia-Pacific region, which will simultaneously offer Mobile ESPN’s products, especially news and video content from the forthcoming 2006 World Cup in Germany. The deal follows the move of Smart Communications, Globe’s main rival, to enter into an agreement with the IMG sports network to provide sports content to clients on its 3G network. Mobile ESPN is the mobile sports content service provided by ESPN Star Sports, Asia’s No. 1 sports broadcaster and content provider. ESPN Star Sports broadcasts the world’s premier live sports and leading regional sports events to over 139 million households on ESPN and over 63 million households on Star Sports.

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