Under the Technology Trade and Investment Collaboration Framework (TTIC), the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) of Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) actively fosters collaboration between Taiwan and the United States in the development of the 5G sector. In March 2023, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) was invited to lead a U.S. 5G industry delegation to visit Taiwan. The delegation comprised top-level representatives from the Open RAN Policy Coalition (ORPC), DISH (a telecom operator), DeepSig (a telecom software provider), Kyrio (a testing laboratory), and Airspan Networks (a wireless equipment provider). Throughout their visit, the delegation engaged with more than 40 companies within Taiwan's 5G supply chain. IDB facilit'ated one-on-one business matchmaking sessions, company visits, and networking activities to bolster collaboration between the U.S. and Taiwan to explore new business opportunities within the next-generation network landscape.
ORPC was the most noteworthy in this delegation. Established in 2020 with support of the U.S. government to advocate an open networking architecture for 5G and to promote a secure and diversified 5G supply chain, its founding members include key players across the 5G industry supply chain, such as AT&T, DISH, Google, Microsoft, Airspan Networks, Qualcomm, Intel and more. The visit by ORPC to Taiwan was a first, presenting a great opportunity to enhance collaboration between Taiwan's telecommunications industry and ORPC members to further foster international connections. Taking this opportunity, IDB also organized the " U.S.-Taiwan 5G Open Networking Forum" on March 28 at the Nangang Exhibition Center. In the forum, the U.S. 5G delegation joined forces with Taiwan's 5G companies, including WNC, Pegatron, Edgecore Networks, QCT, HTC, and Lions Technology. They engaged in in-depth panel discussions on 5G open networking, including the enhancement of supplier diversity in open networking and the acceleration of global open networking deployment. It is anticipated that this forum would facilitate stronger industrial collaboration between the United States and Taiwan, fostering mutual growth.
The U.S.-Taiwan collaboration also yielded positive outcome. For example, HTC G REIGNS, a solution provider in 5G private networks, and DeepSig, an American telecom software company, signed an MOU on March 29 to declare a joint effort in research and development using AI to optimize spectrum utilization, improve wireless signal performance, and enhance 5G distributed unit (DU). Additionally, Lions Technology, a company specializing in 5G open architecture base stations participated in the 5G Challenge hosted by the Department of Defense and NTIA. Lions Technology was selected as this year's contestant in March, and was invited to compete against other selected companies (including AT&T, Mavenir, Radisys, Fujitsu and more) in the United States starting April. This competition involved interoperability test and a total prize pool of US$7 million. Lions Technology in the shortlist further demonstrated Taiwan's capability as a reliable international partner. IDB will continue encouraging more Taiwan companies to participate in similar activities, and showcase Taiwan's software and hardware integration expertise.