Annual output of routers at 100,000 sets. Reported by: CHEN Hui-ling (By CHEN Hui-ling/Taipei) With its new marketing strategy and direction of products and the setback created by its loss in the Central & South American market last year, TAICOM is once again on its way, focusing its effort on routers. Earl this year, with the orders for ISDN routers awarded by OMRON from Japan, TAICOM began working for the Japanese telecommunications Internet market, which is usually dominated only by Japanese-made products. Says Mr. CHEN Chia-yuan, the newly designated general manager at TAICOM, that TAICOM began working on routers 18 months ago based on the router software developed by NOI (Network Oriented Inc.), a reinvestment of TAICOM and the hardware made by TAICOM. The OMRON order does not only mean to confirm its quality, the telecommunication bureau-end technology TAICOM has achieved has also allowed it to catch up with the fast-changing ISDN technology specification in Japan.

Focused on routers, TAICOM has launched PSTN routers and ISDN routers. The company plans to introduce ADSL routers. Mr. CHEN Chia-yuan says, forecasts suggest that TAICOM would deliver as many as 100,000 sets of routers this year, of which 60% would be for Japan. Dispatches for Europe would be made in May. The orders awarded by OMRON, Japan show the total output for that country could go up to 60,000 sets. Delivery made by TAICOM in the first season this year numbered 20,000 sets.

TAICOM's mean revenue for 1999 was $1,707,000,000 and dragged by the shaky Brazilian economy, Dispatch of TAICOM's Pairgains ready for Brazil was not successful, suggesting a $2.00-loss per share to TAICOM's stock. With the new product, TAICOM anticipates a new revenue at $3,164,000,000 and computed on its current capital of $500,000,000, the yield per share would go up to $3.00 per share. TAICOM plans to make a cash increase $100,000,000 to its current capital of $500,000,000, with the purpose of improving its financial structure and injecting more funds on R & D. Mr. CHEN Chia-yuan says, TAICOM plans to apply for registration on the stock market in the second season next year. Currently Capital International Investment Net handles its stocks.

The revenue structure of TAICOM shows that PC modems remain a key contributor of its revenue this year, at 49.2% of the overall income. As another two key players, the ISDN routers and ISDN TA, the combined share in the overall revenue goes at 34.5%. With the new product strategies set b TAICOM for this year, it may focus on the Internet catching equipment. To meet the incoming wide-band age and the associated business opportunities, TAICOM will be launching ADSL series products, HomePNA, VoIP Gateway, IP Gateway and others.

While TAICOM means a producer of CPE-end network products to most of the people, it is not only a bureau-end equipment agent as in the initial phase and it has successfully launched large-scale bureau-end switchboards. Compared with other network makers, TAICOM is a powerful competitor as it is fully aware of the telecommunication bureau-end related technologies.

Mr. CHEN Chia-yuan says, the network communication technology is being shifted from PSTN to IP. Under the PSTN framework, quite a number of specific functions used in speech communications would need to be transformed through software technologies for the application on the OP interface. The valuable technologies TAICOM has accumulated in its bureau-end communication products can successfully solve the issue of conversion of signals between PSTN and IP, giving the company a winning edge in its effort of launching related products.