Government backing for WiMax in Taiwan has been key to its development on the island so far.

Taiwan launched the M-Taiwan (Mobile-Taiwan) program a few years ago to ensure that people in all locations, including remote mountain villages and offshore islands, will be able to access the Internet wirelessly. WiMax is a major part of that program.

As part of M-Taiwan, the government has offered generous research grants and co-investment to companies on the island to help jump start WiMax services. The hope is that by being an early adopter and producer of WiMax products, Taiwanese manufacturers will benefit from the global deployment of WiMax.

"We haven't seen any impact [from the global downturn] on WiMax production. Production is still on track," said Liu Ming-shou, president of Accton Wireless Broadband (AWB) in Taiwan.

"There will be some impact on orders from Nortel," he added. "So far, we have not seen any impact, but I believe we will."