Invited by WIT CLUB and organized by FuTURE FORUM, the senior expert delegation paid a series of business visits to several reputed operators, terminal manufacturers, research institutes, and relative science and technology parks in Taiwan from April 26th to May 2nd of 2010. Cross-Strait Workshop on the Next Generation Mobile Communication Technologies of 2010 was successfully held during the visit and the delegation was warmly welcomed by the local enterprises.

The delegation, headed by Mr. Wan Yi, from CATR of MIIT, and Ms. Fu Jun, Vice Secretary-General of FuTURE FORUM, consists of Mr. Qian Hang, Director from Department of Science and Technology of MIIT, Mr. Zhou Xingguo from SRRC, Mr. Zhan Datian from CCSA, technical seniors from China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, experts from Southeast University and NSN, as well as staff from FuTURE FORUM.

During the exchange visit in Taiwan, the experts obtained all-round experience and understanding of the development of Taiwan's mobile communications market through the workshop discussion, business visit, experience, store visits and some other means. The experts from mainland China, with the purpose of promoting the mutual learning, full exchange, consensus-reaching and common development across the strait, also introduced the development of TD-LTE in mainland China, and expressed a common will to work together to promote the development of TD Industries.

Cross-Strait Technical Workshop

The Cross-Strait Workshop on the Next Generation Mobile Communication Technologies was founded in 2006, when FuTURE FORUM, for the first time, organized the senior experts of China mainland to visit Taiwan and set up a regular cross-strait cooperation and communication mechanism on the next generation mobile communication technologies. After three years, FuTURE FORUM organized a second formal visit to Taiwan, when the 3G operation has been started and 4G technical standards have been introduced to the world. As the international 4G standardization has been counted down and the mobile communication industry is rapidly developed, this visit carries multiple meanings, such as learning 3G operation experience from Taiwan operators and introducing the 4G technology in China mainland so as to reach certain consensus and to promote the common development of mobile communication market.

April 27, Cross-Strait Workshop on the Next Generation Mobile Communication Technologies of 2010 was held in the meeting room of Chunghwa Telecom's flagship store in Taipei, jointly hosted by Taiwan WIT CLUB and FuTURE FORUM, co-organized by Chunghwa Telecom Co..

The workshop was attended by about 30 seniors from nearly 20 Taiwan reputed mobile communication operators, equipment manufacturers, and research institutes, including Chunghwa Telecom, Vibo Telecom, International Telecom, Asia Pacific Telecom, Internet Telecom, Compal Communications, Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, and WIT CLUB.

Dr. Xie Qingtang, the convener of the international cooperation group of network communication projects, was specially invited to give a speech on "Development and application of wireless broadband in Taiwan", detailing Taiwan’s R&D on the development of Taiwan's wireless communications, broadband networks and telecommunications applications services and relative industrial development plan, focusing on the M-Taiwan Plan which aims at developing and expanding the WiMAX industrial chain in Taiwan. Mr. Wan Yi, head of the mainland delegation, made a report on “TD-SCDMA/TD-LTE technologies and industrial development”, stressing the R&D and industrial development of TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE in mainland and expressing an expectation on the cooperation between wireless cities across the strait.

Mr. Qian Hang, Director of Division of Standards from Department of Science and Technology of MIIT, as the consultant of FuTURE FORUM, answered the confusions on why China mainland is actively promoting the development of TD-LTE technologies, clarifying that R&D of TD-SCDMA evolution is indispensable and does not conflict with the development of TD-SCDMA, and expressing the expectation on cooperating with Taiwan industry to jointly promote the development of TD industry. In the follow-up discussion, the experts from the both sides had an in-depth exchange on relative policies, technologies, services on spectrum policies and industrial administration.

Enterprises Visit

During the stay in Taiwan, the delegation paid visits to some mobile operators, equipment manufacturers, and relative enterprises, such as WIT CLUB, Chunghwa Telecom, Compal Communications, Vibo Telecom, Q-Ware Communications, and Taiwan Phihong Technology Co..

FuTURE FORUM had collected the hotspot issues that the delegation members are most interested on for WIT CLUB to prepare in advance. With regard to these issues, Taiwan selected some communication enterprises for the delegation visit, invited the enterprise seniors and heads of relative departments to communicate with the mainland experts on the issues they are quite interested in.

The delegation made their first stop at WIT CLUB, the earliest independent civil academic research institute and the platform for communication and cooperation in mobile communication field, focusing mainly on Taiwan economics, industrial research, and providing relative materials for the governments, enterprises and academic circle as references.

Previously, FuTURE FORUM has organized various communication activities with WIT CLUB in Taipei and Beijing. Ms. Zhou Xiali, Director and Secretary-General of WIT CLUB extended a warm welcome to the mainland delegation and introduced the general situation of telecommunication development in Taiwan in recent years. The experts also had a heated discussion on such issues as the evolution from 2G to 3G, construction and sharing among different operators, number portability, WiMAX development, and construction of Wireless Taipei.

Subsequently, the delegation visited Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom, and had an exchange meeting with the mobile service branch of Chunghwa Telecom. Chunghwa Telecom is Taiwan's largest full-service operator with mobile services occupying about 1/3 of the Group's total share. As the independently operated subsidiary of Chunghwa Telecom, the mobile branch occupies 40% of the overall revenues of the whole Chunghwa Telecom Group with the number of employees account for only 8% of the whole group. Chunghwa Telecom currently operates the 2G EDGE and GSM network covering the whole province, with about 4.5 million users, accounting for 46.4% of Taiwan's 2G users, and 35.3% of revenue. The 3G users amount to 480 million, accounting for 32% of the total 3G users. The director in charge of value-added services and business planning introduced the value-added services and presented their representative's 3G value-added services. The delegation was also invited to see the terminal products and value-added services at their flagship store.

Subsequently, the delegation visited Compal Communications, the largest ODM of communication terminals located in Taipei Neihu Technology Park. Compal Communications provide the mobile products with various modes such as GSM, WCDMA, CDMA2000 and TD-SCDMA, partnering with Motorola, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, LG, PALM and other international famous enterprises. Representatives from Compal Communications introduced their development and product plan on the exchange meeting, and showed great interest in TD-LTE technologies promoted by Mainland China. Director Qian Hang and Mr. Zhou Xingguo both stated that there will be enough market space for TD-LTE with consideration of the 3G development in China mainland and the international position of TD technologies. They suggested that Compal should seize the opportunity to cooperate with the mainland operators to promote TD-LTE development.

The delegation also paid a visit to Vibo Telecom, who was established in 2000, acquired 3G license in 2002, and started to provide WCDMA service in 2005. As a new comer facing with the competition with many experienced operators, Vibo won a favorable position on the market by their innovative marketing policies, a series of novel and special killing applications, with the number of users reaching 1.5 million. Vibo presented their unique marketing policies and colorful value-added services, provided the experts with the on-site experience of their killing 3G application— V-Live, and had a heated discussion on the technology and application related issues that interested the delegation experts. In addition, Vibo also introduced their construction of TD-SCDMA trial network.

Later, the delegation visited QWARE that is engaged in the construction of wireless city. Qware is mainly responsible for the construction and operation of Taipei wireless city project. The construction of Taipei wireless city was proposed in 2004 and the network has covered 90% of the population in Taipei by 2006. With the construction of WIFLY network, Taipei was honored as the annual city of intelligence, and was awarded as the city with the world's largest urban public wireless broadband network after being verified by international certification bodies. But the utilization and revenue of wireless city project are not satisfactory during years of operation. The vice director of Business Department of Qware shared with the delegation experts the experience and problems they had encountered in the construction, operation and marketing positioning of wireless city, hoping to provide some references to the relative projects in China mainland.

In addition to the above enterprises, the delegation also visited PhiHong Technology Co. located in Linkou Science and Technology Park in Taipei, seeing their large-screen interactive systems, multi-touch display platform, TV Wall Display Products and other products, which have been applied in many pavilions in Shanghai World Expo. Mr. Han Zheng, vice mayor of Shanghai, paid a special visit to this company in April. Their interesting presentations and applications offered the experts many new ideas on the conference system, exhibition and demonstration, teaching and training system of their own enterprises.

Taiwan Impression

The visit to Taiwan offers the delegation experts an opportunity to exchange the valuable experience in the evolution of the next generation mobile communication technology and 3G operation with the experts in Taiwan. The delegation experts are very much impressed by the dedication, politeness, consideration and hospitality of the industrial staff during the business visits, exchange meetings and leisure activities, which left a very good memory to the delegation experts.

Since the first visit to Taiwan organized by FuTURE FORUM in 2006, China mainland has gained remarkable improvement in R&D, standardization and market development in the field of the next generation mobile communication, and has been playing an important role in the international mobile communication industry.

FuTURE FORUM and WIT CLUB, as the bridge for cross-strait communication and cooperation, will partner closely in information communication, technical research, and R&D cooperation, work better to promote the mainland 4G standards, learn from each other to reach consensus on joint development, and continue to contribute to the cross-strait development of the next generation mobile communication technologies.

Representatives of Cross-Strait Mobile Communication Technical Workshop 2010	CATR Mr.Wan Yi
MIIT Mr.Qian Hang	SRRC Mr.Zhou Xingguo
Cross-Strait Workshop on the Next Generation Mobile Communication Technologies of 2010	Cross-Strait Workshop on the Next Generation Mobile Communication Technologies of 2010
Ms. Fu Jun, Vice Secretary-General of FuTURE FORUM, and Ms. Zhou Xiali, Secretary-General of WIT CLUB, co-hosted the workshop	Visit to WIT CLUB
Delegation experts listening to the introduction made by Taiwan experts	Visit to Compal Technologies
Discussion meeting at Vibo Telecom	Visit to Qware
Experiencing Value-added 3G service	Listening to the product introduction at Chuanghwa Telecom Taipei Flagship Store
Watching sensor products of Phihong Technologies