Intel teams up with Chunghwa Telecom on smart TVs

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Intel has been banging on about “smart TVs” for donkey’s years, but it seems it may actually be ready to put its rather huge sums of money where its mouth is, in a new joint venture with Taiwanese giant Chunghwa Telecom Co.
Chunghwa Telecom is the largest telecommunication service provider in Taiwan and one of the largest in Asia in terms of revenue. In terms of both revenue and customers, Chunghwa is Taiwan’s largest provider of fixed line services, mobile services, broadband access service, and Internet service. The company also provides information and communication technology services to corporate customers.
Intel CEO Paul Otellini traveled to Taiwan last week to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with both the Taiwanese government and Chunghwa Telecom tentatively based on “cloud computing technologies and services.”
According to Chinese news sources, the MOU outlines Intel’s commitment to provide technical resources and assistance to Chunghwa Telecom in 2011 to help the operator develop and commercialize cloud computing-related products and services.
Lu Hsueh-chin, chairman of Chunghwa Telecom told press his firm would “use Intel’s cloud computing chips with lower power consumption, as well as its data security management systems. We’ll invest heavily in cloud computing equipment over the next two to three years.”
In exchange, Chunghwa says it will help Intel with smart TVs. Intel has already dipped a tentative toe into the TV waters, plugging its tiny Atom chip as the perfect embedded solution for Google based TVs, like Sony’s.

Another thing both Intel and Chunghwa have in common is a propensity to find themselves on the wrong side of antitrust and price fixing cases, though we’re sure both firms have learned their lesson.
We’ll certainly be keeping an eye on this partnership.