The head of the Taiwan 4G organization says commercialization of next-generation wireless technology will occur no earlier than 2012.

Wen Ho Shen told a technical conference in Taipei this week that testing of 4G technology will begin in 2008 and continue well into 2010.

DigiTimes.com said Friday that Taiwan lags behind Japan, South Korea and rival China in development of high-speed 4G but has formed technical alliances with Chinese, Korean and other international telecom electronics companies.

Taiwan's 4G technology will be based on IEEE 802.16e mobile WiMax standard and 802.16j Mobile Multi-hop Relay.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International