Five major telecoms operators from Taiwan and China signed a contract yesterday to build the first undersea cable directly linking Taiwan and China to meet mounting demand, officials said.
Chang Xiaobing (常小兵), chairman of China Unicom (中國聯通), signed the contract at a ceremony in Taipei that also included representatives from Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) and three other leading Taiwanese telecoms operators.
Under the contract, pending the Taiwanese government’s final approval, a 220km undersea cable will link Tamsui with China’s Fuzhou city.
If the project is realized, the cable will become the first of its kind since 1949.
Two other Chinese telecoms operators will sign the contract, thought to be worth about NT$800 million (US$26 million), at a later date.
“Clients’ demand for Internet and audio-video transmission from the two sides are very strong,” an official at Chunghua Telecom said.
Demand is expected to surge in the years ahead as Chinese telecoms operators press for third-generation mobile communications and as cloud computing — whereby shared resources, software and information are hosted online — moves up telecoms operators’ development agendas.
The undersea cable project comes amid fast-warming ties between Taiwan and China under China-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who took office in May 2008 on promises to boost economic ties between the two.
STIMULUS PLANS: An official said that China would increase funding from special treasury bonds and expand another program focused on key strategic sectors China is to sharply increase funding from ultra-long treasury bonds this year to spur business investment and consumer-boosting initiatives, a state planner official told a news conference yesterday, as Beijing cranks up fiscal stimulus to revitalize its faltering economy. Special treasury bonds would be used to fund large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-ins, said Yuan Da (袁達), deputy secretary-general of the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission. “The size of ultra-long special government bond funds will be sharply increased this year to intensify and expand the implementation of the two new initiatives,” Yuan said. Under the program launched last year, consumers can
Citigroup Inc and Bank of America Corp said they are leaving a global climate-banking group, becoming the latest Wall Street lenders to exit the coalition in the past month. In a statement, Citigroup said while it remains committed to achieving net zero emissions, it is exiting the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA). Bank of America said separately on Tuesday that it is also leaving NZBA, adding that it would continue to work with clients on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The banks’ departure from NZBA follows Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Wells Fargo & Co. The largest US financial institutions are under increasing pressure
FUTURE TECH: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang would give the keynote speech at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which is also expected to highlight autonomous vehicles Gadgets, robots and vehicles imbued with artificial intelligence (AI) would once again vie for attention at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, as vendors behind the scenes would seek ways to deal with tariffs threatened by US president-elect Donald Trump. The annual Consumer Electronics Show opens formally in Las Vegas tomorrow, but preceding days are packed with product announcements. AI would be a major theme of the show, along with autonomous vehicles ranging from tractors and boats to lawn mowers and golf club trollies. “Everybody is going to be talking about AI,” Creative Strategies Inc analyst Carolina Milanesi said. “From fridges to ovens
Twenty years after he was a young, struggling actor in Toronto, Thomas Lo (盧瑞麟) is now the one giving young Asian actors their big breaks. He just had to go to Hong Kong to do it. The Chinese Canadian has been the creative director of one of the territory’s biggest TV broadcasting companies for only a few years, but is already making original English-language content to reach viewers around the world. “It was a bit of a full-circle moment for me,” Lo said. “You see more Asians, but you’re still seeing the same Asians on screen, right? We’re looking for more opportunities
RSS