2016 Taipei 5G Summit was a collaboration of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), Ministry of Education (MOE), Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Association of Information and Communication Standards (TAICS), and is endorsed by the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance.

Nearly all the leading mobile networks providers will take part in the Summit. They include AT&T, China Mobile, Chunghwa Telecom, Korea Telecom, NTT DOCOMO, Orange, Singtel, SK Telecom, T-Mobile, Telecom Italia, Verizon, and Vodafone etc. More than 100 international telecommunications people will participate.

As Minister Chung stated “For decades Taiwan has been an important global ICT partner through our vibrant ecosystem, industrial clustering, customer-dedicated manufacturing capability. We wouldn’t absent from the trend of 5G development. And as we known, 5G technology market offers great opportunities, yet faces enormous challenges, bigger than previous generations of cellular technologies.”

“With sharing insight and experience on standard development and network deployment from NGMN, and integrated with Taiwan robustly 5G development & fast prototyping capability, all could lead us to quicker and more cost-effective solutions to make 5G become a reality.” Chung added.

Citing the "5G White Paper" of TAICS, Jong-Chin Shen, Vice Minister of the MOEA, pointed out the growth of world mobile data telecommunication volume will skyrocket exponentially in the next few years. The mobile data transfer volume in 2020 is expected to be 1,000 times of 2010's volume. Thus, all the industrialized countries are stepping up the development of the 5G technologies and industrial standards.

In the past, the development of industrial standards where mostly dominated by the equipment suppliers. Currently the setting of the standards is mostly driven by the operators of mobile networks, the vice minister stated.

NGMN CEO Peter Meissner said, “We are pleased to sign this MoU with Taiwan’s standardization body, TAICS, because 5G requires strong global cooperation. As IoT applications cover such a wide range, they complement 5G to provide a unique optimization of integrated communications. One global standard for Network infrastructure and devices is needed by all enterprises and this is where NGNM and TAICS will work closely together.”

“Taiwan’s ICT strength and dynamic supply chain offer worldwide connectivity and this links well with NGMN’s role in driving 5G requirements within standard bodies such as TAICS, ETSI and ITU. We are looking forward to a close co-operation with TAICS to ensure broad, international support for our ambitious mutual targets and for the benefit of the whole industry”.

More than 90 corporate members have joined TAICS since its establishment in July 2015 with the goal of integrating international technology standards and fostering cooperation. TAICS members include telecommunications companies, system integrators, component makers, semiconductor firms, and IC design companies such as MediaTek, Foxconn, and Chungwha Telecom.

TAICS Chairman Jonathan Tsang said, “NGMN is an international association that connects global telecom operators. Signing this memorandum is just the first step to many more collaborations. We look forward to a collaboration that is based on mutual trust and mutual benefit as we each share resources and focus on further developing our core competencies. This partnership will foster the growth of 5G adoption and help develop a new era of 5G.”

Sheng-Lin Chou, Secretary General of TAICS and concurrently Deputy General Director of the Information and Communications Research Laboratories of ITRI said that “Through TAICS, this platform, will promote the domestic industry proactive participation in international 5G standard body, and to help the industry actively to get hold of the essential intellectual property rights; We here urge more industry members and companies who can join the TAICS, Taiwan Standard Body, to extend our influence to International Standards and organizations.”

In order to promote the understanding of 5G knowledge and encourage more participation from the business sector, a 5G exhibition will be held March 15 ~ 17 to showcase advanced 5G products, technologies, and applications.

The exhibitors include Intel, the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Gorilla Technology Group, Ericsson, Nokia, Keysight, Rohde & Schwarz, Arcadyan Technology, ZyXEL, Auden Techno Corp., SERCOMM, National Taiwan University, and National Chiao Tung University etc.