Cisco CTO takes aim at Taiwan broadband

Taiwan’s broadband infrastructure needs improving and is limiting the country’s business opportunities, according to the chief technology and strategy officer of networking giant Cisco.

The comments were offered up by Cisco executive Padmasree Warrior at a media briefing in Taipei for the ‘Cisco Connect’ seminar, according to a report by the Focus Taiwan news site.

When asked for her advice to the local government Warrior said that better broadband would enable Cisco’s customers and suppliers in Taiwan to operate more efficiently. Faster speeds would help, “transform industries” and “allow companies to have innovative power” in a wide range of sectors such as medicine, education and manufacturing, she said.

The remarks are surprising in that as a manufacturing hub for the computer and mobile industry, and home to the likes of HTC, Taiwan is thought of as a technology leader. The country currently has broadband penetration of 78.8 per cent, according to Informa WBIS statistics, higher than the 74.6 per cent of the US, and 70.29 per cent of Europe.

At the end of 2012, Taiwan has an average connection speed of 3.9Mbps according to the latest Akamai State of the Internet report figures, compared to 7.6Mbps for the US and 6Mbps for the UK.

According to the UK regulator Ofcom however, the UK had raced past the 12Mbps figure by May 2013.

The Broadband Asia conference is taking place on the 9th-10^th April 2013 at the Kowloon Shangri-La Hotel, Hong Kong. Click here to find out more about the event