http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200602/kt2006022217225410160.htm
WiBro Service to Hit Highway
By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter
With the high-speed mobile Internet service commencing in Korea next week,
KT will start a demonstration service on parts of the Seoul-Pusan Highway
and the Seoul-Pundang subway line.
KT, the nation¹s largest fixed-line telephone and broadband Internet service
operator, said Wednesday that it will start testing and demonstrating the
WiBro network on March 2 for its 200 employees. It will be open to the
public in April and two months later the paid service will begin in parts of
Seoul and nearby Kyonggi Province area, KT said.
The first service area will be a 16-kilometer section on Kyongbu
(Seoul-Pusan) Highway, from its starting point at Hannam Bridge in Seoul to
Pangyo. Also, a 25-kilometer subway section from Sollung Station in southern
Seoul to Ori station in Pundang, Kyonggi Province will be available for the
WiBro connection.
``We will invite 2,000 citizens for the pilot program beginning in April,
and the official service will kick off in June,¹¹ KT¹s spokesperson Koo
Ja-ho said. ``It will be around the end of this year when the WiBro network
covers the whole city.¹¹
KT said it had set up 150 transmission posts in the areas for the test
service.
WiBro, short for ``wireless broadband,¹¹ is a network enabling high speed
Internet access, even in fast-moving vehicles, including cars, trains, and
even the subway, at a speed of up to 120 kilometers per hour.
The Internet-on-the-road service has been considered to be the predominant
next-generation mobile Internet service. It drew wide public attention when
it was successfully demonstrated in front of domestic and foreign media
during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting in Pusan in
November.
Currently, KT and SK Telecom, leading mobile phone service providers, are
taking charge of the Wibro project for its early takeoff in the country.
Hardware manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics are also making
significant investment in developing WiBro terminals.
KT said that the WiBro network can provide a download speed of 4 mega-bites
per second, which is similar or a bit slower than ADSL, KT¹s existing
household broadband Internet service.
When it becomes available to the public, people can hook up to the network
by using a card-type receiver for their laptops or other portable gadgets.
There are a few personal digital assistant products ready to hit the store
shelves that have an embedded WiBro receiver.
The service fee for WiBro is not fixed yet but there will be various
options, the company said. ``We are considering to give multiple options to
customers by mixing fixed-rate and pay-per-packet charging systems,¹¹
spokesman Koo said.
02-22-2006 17:21
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