The decision was immediately praised by analysts and industry players alike, who watched in horror last year as Europe's 3G auctions turned dreams of the mobile Internet into a financial nightmare. The government had planned to announce rules governing licenses that would allow companies to build 3G mobile Internet network's this month, but put off the decision following similar delays in Singapore and South Korea. Although officials don't expect to formalize the licensing process until June, they still plan to award licenses by October as originally planned. Investors worldwide turned bearish on telecommunications stocks last year as European governments collected huge payoffs during bidding for 3G licenses. In their zeal to obtain a license, these companies paid so much money that some analysts doubt their ability to finance the license cost on top of the cash needed for the 3G network itself.
Investor sentiment has yet to improve.
Industry players in Taiwan welcomed the chance to slow down the 3G licensing process. Taiwan should look at what other nations are experiencing. Outside of Japan, few mobile phone service providers have been able to entice people to surf the mobile Internet. Costly WAP phones ran at a glacial speed of 9.6 kilobits per second, about the same as a circa 1993 computer. The only hurdle for the service is a lack of GPRS handsets, which should hit the market by March.