China and Taiwan Unite…Over Telecom Standards

Telecommunications leaders from China and Taiwan met in Beijing on Wednesday and agreed to jointly standardize on Android, WiMax, and TD-LTE (Time-Division Long Term Evolution) among other accords.
This second annual conference, attended by China Mobile and Taiwan’s Institute for Information Industry (III), has the goal of boosting locally developed technologies and reducing the long-term licensing costs of foreign developed standards.
Jyuo-Min Shyu, President of the Taiwan Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) announced “Working together in this new era of information and communications technology will greatly benefit businesses in China and Taiwan.  Investing together in new telecommunications technologies and services will boost the global competitiveness of both sides in 4G wireless broadband, cloud computing, wireless cities and more.”
Android and the China specific Ophone variant will be the basis for new products including netbooks, tablets, and e-readers.  According to Taiwan’s III Director Pao-Chung Ho, a joint organization will be founded to establish specifications, produce reference designs, test products, and provide certification to ensure quality while improving time-to-market.
This agreement bonds Taiwan’s technology to China’s vast consumer market of up to 800 million mobile phone subscribers.  China Mobile alone has over 544 million subscribers as of last April.
Jung-Chiou Hwang, Taiwan’s Vice-Minister of Economic Affairs states that “Taiwan and China already have a number of different industry initiatives in place.  We have already seen positive developments in industries from LEDs and Solar Technology to Chinese Herbal medicines, medical devices, and more.”
Conversely, Alison Kao from Taiwan carrier FarEastTone kept a more conservative note saying “We will mainly focus on Android phones for now but will keep monitoring the Ophone and other new developments on a regular basis.”  China Mobile has recently declared that it will purchase shares in FarEastTone.