05-22-2008

By Cho Jin-seo
(Korea Times) Staff Reporter

In Korea where broadband Internet speed is one of the world’s fastest, downloading a two-hour movie file may not take more than five minutes. But even the most Internet-savvy Koreans will be surprised when KT opens its “WiBro Wave 2” network this fall, which will enable users to download a 700-megabite movie file in about 120 seconds.

KT last month started the second round of its Project WiBro, with which it plans to blanket the whole country with a seamless wireless network of super-fast Internet connections. As an important first step, the firm signed a memorandum of understanding with Gyeonggi Province, Monday. The province is the largest and the most populated in South Korea, with 11 million residents, and also possesses the most vigorous economy.

Including Suwon, Incheon, and Guri, 19 cities in the province will benefit from the WiBro Wave 2 service from October.

“The expansion of WiBro service to every corner of the metropolitan area will greatly improve the usability of the high-speed wireless Internet,” said Nam Joong-soo, CEO of KT. “It will contribute to the regional economy by helping small-sized companies establish a mobile working environment.”

WiBro, better known as Mobile WiMAX in other countries, is a high-speed mobile Internet system that has faster and larger coverage than the widely used Wi-Fi wireless system. KT has been building the network to cover major cities in South Korea, and hopes to eventually cover the whole country, with a seamless WiBro network.

The already superb quality of the KT WiBro network is expected to greatly improve this year when more innovative technologies are deployed.

The so-called “Wave 2” transmitters will simultaneously use multiple transmission antennas, and “smart” antennas will automatically focus radio waves in the direction of where data traffic is heaviest, engineers refer to this system as a “sunflower antenna.”

Korea has been the leader of this technology, and KT is operating citywide WiBro networks for a monthly fee of 19,800 won. Sprint-Nextel has been working to cover several big cities in the United States with WiBro, with a large amount of equipment imported from Samsung Electronics.

According to the firm, around 160,000 customers were subscribing to WiBro service at the end of April and the number was increasing ¢®¨£ KT is aiming for 400,000 subscribers by December. The firm hopes that the introduction of discount plans for multiple subscriptions for telephones, mobile phones and home Internet services will be a big attraction to customers.

The deal with Gyeonggi Province will open new opportunities for WiBro especially in the public sector, KT Said. According to the firm, Gyeonggi is to use WiBro for conventions and tourism events to be held in the province. More importantly, officials are considering utilizing the system in fighting crime and fire by issuing WiBro devices to policemen and firemen and monitoring them from a control tower.

“Gyeonggi is a large province and there are regions easily excluded from traditional telecommunication networks,” said Kim Moon-soo, its governor. “We hope that every corner of Gyeonggi can benefit from this telecom service as soon as possible.”

indizio@koreatimes.co.kr

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/05/123_24596.html