Softbank, Chunghwa Telecom partner on AI, IoT

Taiwanese incumbent carrier Chunghwa Telecom has signed an MoU with Japan’s Softbank for collaboration on artificial intelligence (AI) and IoT.

In a statement, the companies said the technological and commercial cooperation aims to develop use cases for future smart cities in Taiwan.

It will also involve ST Solutions Taiwan Co. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of SoftBank Corp.

The pair said they plan to leverage their insights and experiences from the collaboration in AI, IoT and related fields.

The collaboration will initially focus on such areas as global IoT platforms, smart infrastructure, smart agriculture as well as utilization of high-accuracy location data and big data.

The partnership with Softbank is Chunghwa Telecom’s latest push in IoT.

In February, the Taiwanese operator inked a deal with Ericsson to use the Swedish vendor’s IoT Accelerator platform to develop IoT services for its enterprise customers.

Max Chen, president of mobile business group, at Chunghwa Telecom, was quoted as saying in the statement that the partnership with Ericsson will boost its capabilities in machine learning and IoT operations.

“As Taiwan’s industry is mainly export-driven, Chunghwa Telecom’s IoT innovation drive will help local industries to expand their international IoT business horizon,” Chen said.