A Research On Taiwan’s Mobile Communication Industry Technology Strategy

Under the guidance of Taiwan government’s M-Taiwan project starting from2005, in addition to the influence by Intel’s global WiMAX strategic initiative, Taiwan’s4G industrial policy unilaterally inclined to the development of WiMAX technologies. Taiwan government hoped to build Taiwan as a WiMAX testbed unmatched in the world, in terms of integrated chip design, terminal equipment, base station, and applications. Taiwan’s National Communication Commission (NCC) formulated regulations in conformance with M-Taiwan project approved and promoted by Executive Yuan and announced "Wireless Broadband Access Business Regulation" in2007, which serves as the legal framework to release the2.5-2.69GHz spectrums for wireless broadband access services. However, Taiwan government exposed the ICT industries to high risks while exercising all policy measures available to unreservedly nurture WiMAX industry. After financial tsunami in2008, LTE technology surpassed WiMAX and has become widely commercialized. In particular, the deployment of LTE commercial services in North America by Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility in2010and2011respectively has helped cemented LTE’s unshakable dominance in4G mobile communication markets.Based on the economics and law theories, this dissertation exploits why LTE standard becomes the mainstream technology in the4G marketplace, from perspectives of mobile communication technology evolution, technology diffusion, network externality, and path dependence. Further, the dissertation scrutinizes Taiwan’s4G industrial policies, in light of law and economics respectively. In-depth analyses and reviews are proposed with respect to whether the implementation of M-Taiwan Initiative has resulted in economic benefits as expected by Taiwan government, whether the upgrade of Taiwan’s ICT industry has been realized, and whether the export of WiMAX products has propelled Taiwan’s economy as a whole. In addition, the impacts on the operations of Wireless Broadband Access (WBA) operators by the "Wireless Broadband Access Business Regulation" formulated in accordance with M-Taiwan Initiative have been examined as well. An ideal4G industrial policy should take into considerations of Taiwan’s tackle point from the global industry competition and cooperation perspective. Telecommunication industry possesses a typical characteristic of network externality. The larger the network scale is, the greater the consumer influence is. Under the positive and negative feedbacks, there will be a single mainstream technology only to be embraced and adopted by global telecommunication markets, leading to the scenario of "the winner takes it all." Taiwan as an export-oriented island economy, industrial policy should conform to mainstream technologies as the primary measure. Guiding domestic vendors to obtain critical technologies so that products meeting customer needs can be developed and produced becomes the government’s most important strategic objective. Hence, in cases of strategic investments on certain emerging communication technologies given the government’s strategic needs to foster industrial upgrade, betting on a single communication technology candidate with all resources may result in massive and profound consequences on Taiwan’s entire industries if proven to be faulty, considering Taiwan’s industrial structure, the substantial power in international standard organizations, and the extent of essential intellectual property ownership.