Taipei, Aug. 31 (CNA) The Bureau of High Speed Rail (HSR) said Wednesday it will upgrade its telecommunications service by next June to offer its passengers uninterrupted Internet access on mobile devices.
In a NT$500 million (US$17 million) joint project with the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Industrial Technology Research Institute and a local telecommunications company, the HSR said, it will introduce the 4G (fourth-generation) WiMAX technology to get rid of the glitches in the current service.
At present, HSR passengers using 2G or 3G cellular devices often have reception problems because the high speed of the trains makes it difficult to achieve a smooth signal transition from one base station to the next.
But that obstacle will soon be overcome as hundreds of WiMAX base stations and 360 kilometers of optical fiber cable are being installed along the railway line, the HSR said.
It is the first time in the world that a 4G WiMAX service will be available on high-speed ground transportation, said HSR Director-General Chu Shu. The made-in-Taiwan technology is expected to boost public use of the newest generation of wireless broadband telecommunications, he said.
As of June this year, the number of WiMAX subscribers in Taiwan was around 60,000, according to the National Communications Commission.