Last updated: 7 May 2008 Update History
Report Status: Archived
Report Pages: 125
Analyst: Stephen McNamara
Publication Overview
Taiwan is a country leading in technology use. The report covers trends and developments in telecommunications, mobile, Internet, broadband, digital TV and converging media including VoIP and IPTV developments. Subjects include:
Researcher:- Lisa Hulme-Jones
Current publication date:- May 2008 (14th Edition)
Next publication date:- Feb 2009
Executive Summary
Taiwan has been very progressive in its efforts to liberalise the telecommunications industry and to create a positive regulatory regime. Despite the odd bout of bureaucratic bickering, structural reforms have been achieved. At the same time, Taiwan’s telecommunication infrastructure has been upgraded significantly, undergoing a series of network modernisation projects over the last decade or so.
Internet growth has been phenomenal in Taiwan. The proportion of the population who are Internet users has exceeded 65%. Some 80% of all homes in Taiwan own PCs and around 70% of homes have Internet connections. The market has moved rapidly away from dial-up access to broadband, mainly on DSL subscriptions, and over 60% of all Internet connections are broadband. The government has committed the country to being on a par with the US by 2010. Going into 2008 broadband penetration had been lifted to over 20%. There are a large number of ISPs, although a handful of big ones continue to dominate the market. For more information, see chapter 6.1, page 32.
Taiwan’s mobile market has been a remarkable phenomenon. By early 2002, the country had reached the milestone of one mobile service for every person on the island. After peaking at a penetration of 114% in late 2003, the penetration was sitting at around 105% going into 2008.
Consistent with the performance of its impressive mobile sector, Taiwan moved energetically into the ‘next generation’ of mobile services. Following the awarding of five licences for 3G services in 2002, one of the new licensees, APBW, launched its CDMA2000 1x service in 2003. The market newcomer passed the ‘one million subscribers’ milestone in late 2006, having grown fivefold in just three years. Three other 3G licensees launched their 3G services in 2005 and now account for nearly 15% of the total mobile subscriber base.
Taiwan has one of the highest TV penetrations in the world. In recent times, change has been the order of the day in Taiwan’s television industry - the establishment of a public television system, the legalisation of private cable TV operations, the increased popularity of satellite broadcasting, the promotion of digital television, and the employment of a whole range of new digital technologies. For more information, see chapter 7, page 55.
Key highlights:
Taiwan Internet, broadband and telecoms statistics – 2004 - 2007
Sector |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 | |
Internet (million) | |||||
Internet users |
12.2 |
13.2 |
14.5 |
15.4 | |
Internet subscribers |
8.0 |
7.3 |
7.0 |
6.0 | |
Mobile Internet subscribers |
5.3 |
8.1 |
9.1 |
11.8 | |
- as % of all mobile subscribers |
23.5% |
36.4% |
39.4% |
48.8% | |
Broadband (million) | |||||
Total subscribers |
3.7 |
4.2 |
4.5 |
4.6 | |
Penetration rate |
16.3% |
18.5% |
19.7% |
20.2% | |
Proportion of Internet subscribers |
46.0% |
58.0% |
61.0% |
62.0% | |
DSL subscribers |
3.1 |
3.6 |
3.8 |
3.8 | |
Subscribers to Telecoms Services (million) |
|||||
Fixed-line telephone subscribers |
13.5 |
13.6 |
13.4 |
13.3 | |
Mobile phone subscribers |
22.7 |
22.1 |
23.2 |
24.2 | |
- 3G subscribers |
0.5 |
0.9 |
1.8 |
3.5 | |
- 3G market share of mobile base |
2.1% |
4.2% |
7.9% |
14.4% | |
(Source: BuddeComm based on industry data)
For those needing high level strategic analysis and objective analysis on Taiwan, this report is essential reading and gives further information on:
Data in this report is the latest available at the time of preparation and may not be for the current year.
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