November 9, 2004
Technology in Focus features analysis of recent technology news articles, by the consultants in Technology Group, IDA. This is the top pick of the month from a list of 10 - 20 news analysis compiled monthly.
by Yong Kuan Loong, NWT Consultant
In February 2002, Korean government breathed new life into the 2.3GHz spectrum band when it allocated 100MHz of it for what it then called the "portable Internet". Today, Phase I of the WiBro standard has been approved by the Telecommunications Technology Association of Korea and is strongly backed by some of the biggest names in the Korean telecom industry. WiBro appears to have leapfrogged IEEE 802.16e, the mobile variant of the IEEE 802.16 standard, which is still in the draft stage. The Korean press reported that POS Data and LG Electronics believe they will be able to roll out WiBro networks in mid-2006. The MIC predicts there will be 9.3 million subscribers six years from launch, generating up to 3.2-3.7 trillion won (approx. USD 3 billion) in revenues.
There is no doubt that WiBro will coexist with 3G. KT and SK Telecom, both of which own 3G networks, will make sure of that. However the fate of the wireless LAN hotspot business model is less certain. WiBro will offer an aggregate data throughput of 30-50Mbps - comparable to what Wi-Fi offers today - but does not have the limitations of the latter. One will be able to access the WiBro network, in which a base station covers 1-5km, not only at cafes or shopping malls but just about everywhere. Furthermore, WiBro supports quality of service (QoS), which enables content such as high quality streaming videos to be delivered to the user. By contrast, not only does Wi-Fi today not offer any QoS mechanism, but it also uses shared, licence-exempt spectrum, which makes Wi-Fi systems vulnerable to interference from other users of the same frequency band.
Critics may point to the fact that WiBro, being a home-grown Korean standard, will not enjoy the same international acceptance and economies of scale as WiMAX, touted by Intel to be "the global standard". That could have been true earlier this year, until the US Trade Representative (USTR) intervened, claiming that the WiBro standardization process was being "manipulated to exclude foreign technologies". It is possible that WiBro was adapted from an early version of 802.16e and further developed domestically until the Koreans were pressured to continue their work under the auspices of the IEEE. The system level specifications of WiBro haven't changed much after the USTR incident but the technical parameters of WiBro and 802.16e are now in agreement. Not that this is really saying all that much. Anyone familiar with the 802.16 family of standards knows that they comprise several mutually exclusive options and leaves many of the design parameters to the equipment manufacturer. The reason WiMAX exists is to lock down all of these variables so that 802.16 equipment can interoperate. Korea will still have its own flavour of WiMAX, but at least foreign vendors too can have a share of Korea's huge wireless broadband pie.
Some words about the writer
Yong Kuan Loong is a consultant with the Technology Group, tasked with the responsibility of identifying and driving the adoption of emerging telecommunication technologies in Singapore. He specializes in a wide range of wireless technologies, including free-space optics, ultra-wideband, broadband wireless access and mobile ad hoc networking.
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