Taiwan’s state-controlled telecom company plans to invest 100 billion new Taiwan dollars (US$3.1 billion) over the next five years to upgrade its network and further develop applications and services based on Web 2.0, a spokeswoman said Monday.Chunghwa Telecom will spend half the money on infrastructure, replacing miles of copper phone lines with fiber-optic cable and the latest switches, said Hsu An-ling, a company spokeswoman. The other half will go toward developing services and applications on the network designed around the idea of Web 2.0 (second-generation World Wide Web).The plan is a bid to build the island into a world Internet leader. Taiwan has already rolled out Wi-Fi in its largest city, Taipei, and it plans to use WiMax to turn the entire island into a wireless Internet zone in the future. Chunghwa is a key player in the wireless and wireline buildups on the island. It’s one of two companies offering Wi-Fi across Taipei.Chunghwa also plans to continue building on Web 2.0 projects already up and running, such as Xsuite, which offers users drawing applications, blogs, video blogs, photo diaries and other services. About 3 million people have already signed up for Xsuite in Taiwan. The idea of Web 2.0 comprises applications and services based on the more collaborative and sharing capabilities of the Internet, rather than static webpages.The company will also begin to transfer voice phone calls to Internet protocol from traditional switch lines, continue to build its television and movie broadcasting service and delve into other multimedia services. Health care is one area the company is trying out new services. Chunghwa has teamed up with a local nonprofit organization to place 500 kiosks in hospitals, medical offices and nursing homes as a means for people to find medical information, said Hsu.The company is in talks with iD SoftCapital Group, the venture capital and consulting group founded by Acer founder Stan Shih to work on the health care scheme. The kiosks will be placed in facilities in two cities, Taoyuan and Chungli, as a trial before the company decides whether to expand the program.-Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service (Taipei Bureau)Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content brandpost Sponsored by Freshworks When your AI chatbots mess up AI ‘hallucinations’ present significant business risks, but new types of guardrails can keep them from doing serious damage By Paul Gillin Dec 08, 2023 4 mins Generative AI brandpost Sponsored by Dell New research: How IT leaders drive business benefits by accelerating device refresh strategies Security leaders have particular concerns that older devices are more vulnerable to increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. By Laura McEwan Dec 08, 2023 3 mins Infrastructure Management case study Toyota transforms IT service desk with gen AI To help promote insourcing and quality control, Toyota Motor North America is leveraging generative AI for HR and IT service desk requests. By Thor Olavsrud Dec 08, 2023 7 mins Employee Experience Generative AI ICT Partners feature CSM certification: Costs, requirements, and all you need to know The Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) certification sets the standard for establishing Scrum theory, developing practical applications and rules, and leading teams and stakeholders through the development process. By Moira Alexander Dec 08, 2023 8 mins Certifications IT Skills Project Management Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe