Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), the nation’s No. 2 telecoms operator, yesterday said it plans to spend NT$5 billion (US$170 million) building “green” cloud-computing facilities in Neihu District (內湖), Taipei.
The phone company is scheduled to complete the construction of the facilities in the first quarter of next year, according to a company statement.
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), the nation’s third-largest telecoms operator, yesterday also said it had invested NT$10 billion building eight cloud-computing Internet data centers.
The company said it is building a ninth one for NT$6 billion in Neihu District this year.
The two providers’ plans to spend billions of NT dollars on their cloud-computing businesses came after their bigger rival, Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), said last week it would deepen its collaboration with Intel Corp to capitalize on new growth opportunities in the computer industry.
Several Taiwanese companies, including Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), are moving into cloud computing, either by supplying servers or setting up their own data centers.
Moreover, Google Inc last month said it would triple its investment in a cloud-computing data center in Changhua County to US$300 million, from the US$100 million it announced in September last year.
Google’s Taiwanese center, once its construction is completed early next year and it starts operations by the end of next year, would be the largest of its kind in Asia, with two other centers currently under construction in Hong Kong and Singapore.
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