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Taiwan looks to set up WiMAX OIOT lab
Harris Lin, Taipei; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES [Tuesday 16 March 2010]
Taiwan's WiMAX operator Tatung InfoComm, Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), government-sponsored groups and device makers plan to jointly forward an application to the WiMAX Forum for the establishment of an operator interoperability testing (OIOT) laboratory in Taiwan, according to industry sources. Although the WiMAX Forum has assigned two laboratories in Taiwan - Advance Data Technology (ADT) and TTC-CCS Lab, to serve as certification testing labs for WiMAX products in Taiwan, the certified devices still have to be sent to an OIOT lab abroad for end-to-end interoperability testing before selling to WiMAX operators, the sources noted. However, the WiMAX Forum has so far assigned only the US-based WiMAX operator Clearwire to set up such an OIOT lab, said the sources. Taiwan makers as a whole exported a total of NT$8.994 billion (US$282.47 million) worth of WiMAX CPE products in 2009, accounting for 90% of the global market, according to data compiled by Taiwan-based Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). Shipments of WiMAX CPE products by Taiwan makers are expected to grow 86.8% to NT$16.8 billion in 2010, ITRI estimated. The establishment of an OIOT lab in Taiwan will further help its makers lower related certification expenses, said the sources, noting that WiMAX device makers in other countries, including Japan and Malaysia, are also eyeing the possibility of setting up OIOT labs of their own.
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