Taiwan market: Vmax to cooperate with taxi company to promote WiMAX services

Taiwan-based WiMAX operator Vmax Telecom plans to team up with Taipei-based taxi fleet operator M-Taxi to promote its forthcoming WiMAX services and to ramp up ARPU (average revenue per user), according to company chairman CK Liu.

Under the cooperation, each taxi of the fleet will be installed with an integrated WiMAX/GPS mobile Internet device (MID), which will allow customers to access Internet, IPTV and mobile data services while riding, Liu indicated.

The ARPU contributed by users in such businesses as taxi fleet operators could top NT$3,000 (US$93) a month, including access fees, advertisement incomes, IPTV fees, and data service fees, Liu explained, noting that Vmax aims to have 30,000 users from these businesses, in addition to 160,000-180,000 general subscribers, in the initial stage.

The number of taxis under the M-Taxi group that will be installed with the MID will reach 500 by the end of 2009 and increase to 1,000 by February 2010, Liu revealed.