Mobile in Korea

South Koreans to meet SIP based Internet phones

2007-03-29T20:20:00.000-07:00

Great Human Software (GHS), which is a Korean Internet phone service provider, revealed its new plan to provide Korean first SIP based Internet phone. SIP based Internet phone has better features compared to existing counter parts such as, better QoS, more suitable for multimedia functions and so on.
GHS is planning to add new services step by step, that is, starting from voice call at the beginning stage, after that adding video call function and then multimedia conference function, finally reaching to an integrated messenger phone by the end of this year.
GHS is very confident for itself to catch up with Skype, the world first internet phone service provider, by 2010.
VoIP phone is getting popular more and more in Korea with its low cost. The number of VoIP users is more than 180,000 in January increased more 30% than previous month. However, until now, Korean customers had complaints about its poor quality compared wireline phone.
Korean internet phone users can meet new internet phone service that is different from what they have had soon.
The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is an application-layer control (signaling) protocol for creating, modifying, and terminating sessions with one or more participants. These sessions include Internet telephone calls, multimedia distribution, and multimedia conferences." It was originally designed by Henning Schulzrinne (Columbia University) and Mark Handley starting in 1996. In November 2000, SIP was accepted as a 3GPP signaling protocol and permanent element of the IMS architecture. It is widely used as a signaling protocol for Voice over IP, along with H.323 and others.

Samsung revealed new Mobile WiMAX terminals

2007-03-29T01:40:00.000-07:00

During the CTIA Wireless 2007, Mobile WiMAX was the most spotlit technology due to the announcement of new terminals from Samsung and the detailed plans of Mobile WiMAX service from Sprint Nextel. Samsung revealed its new Mobile WiMAX terminals such as, cell phone, smart phone, PCMCIA card at the event. Meanwhile, Sprint Nextel said that it is going to start its Mobile WiMAX commercial service from the end of this year in 19 major cities. In order to provide nationwide commercial service, Sprint has signed on contracts with 3 major vendors, which are Samsung, Motorola and Nokia. Especially, Samsung will provide equipment for 5 east cities of the country including Washington, Boston, Philadelphia. In addition, Samsung has been selected as a terminal and chipset provider as well. Accordingly, it is expected that Samsung will maintain its dominance on Mobile WiMAX market with it leading system and handset technologies. In other hand, Samsung is also planning to offer its new Mobile WiMAX terminals in South Korean market from this April so that South Korean people can meet new wireless broadband internet world earlier than its counterparts in the US. Taking more detailed look at Korea, KT, which is the first broadband operator in Korea, has announced that it would expand its Mobile WiMAX coverage to the whole metropolitan area until the end of this month. And it is going to provide various terminal types such as, CDMA+Mobile WiMAX DBDM handsets, HSDPA+Mobile WiMAX DBDM handsets as well as Samsung’s new type’s Mobile WiMAX terminals introduced during CTIA.
In my opinion, it would be a good idea for Sprint Nextel to benchmark Korean market and KT’s Strategies for the success of its Mobile WiMAX business in the US.

Let's Google on our Cell Phones

2007-03-28T01:20:00.000-07:00

It would be amazing if we could meet ‘Google’ on our own cell phones to use ‘Google Search’, ‘Google Map’, ‘gmail’ and ‘blogging’ same as we are doing on computers at our home. Surprisingly, it is not a dream, customers are able to see cell phones that have googling functions. Samsung and LG, both are South Korean handset makers, announced that they had signed on a contract with Google for embedding Google’s internet services into their cell phones.
In case of Samsung, it already released Google phone in Europe at the beginning of this year. Meanwhile, LG is planning to provide its Google embedded phones by the end of this year for all over the world.
This contract with Google is one of their strategies to prepare the mobile 2.0 era. Moreover this is a good news for customers who need to google anytime, anywhere.
South Korean handset makers are trying to go ahead in their field.

Visual Radio on DMB

2007-03-21T00:22:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of the visual radio? Maybe not. It is a new DMB servicethat will be provided in Korea. South Korean T-DMB service companies have some audio channels. There are many people who prefer listening to radio programs to watching TV programs for a long time via their DMB devices. With this trend, Korean companies are trying to offer picture frame during their radio programs. They think that this new service will attract more customers. As an example of this service, users can read lyrics while listening to music. In addition, they can read information about the song itself and the singer. And every program can be delivered with text for some people who have difficulty in listening.
It is just beginning in Korea. Currently, operators are spending their time agonizing what is better and more attractive to Korean users.
Even though Korean DMB technology has evolved from DAB technology in Europe, it has better technical features more than DAB since they use different technologies for audio data compression. Korean DMB uses BSAC that can provide better quality of audio with narrower frequency than DAB. Moreover, it uses QVGA technology for picture compression rather than JEPG so that it can provide more picture frames with the same frequency bandwidth.

Movie Clip UCC on DMB

2007-03-19T01:01:00.000-07:00

Korean mobile TV users can enjoy UCC movie clips on their DMB devices. MGoon, which is a UCC movie clip portal company, has just started its new S-DMB program named 'Welcome to UCC' via SBS (Seoul Broadcasting System) DMB network.
Korean users can meet this program on every Friday for 30 minutes.The program shows best UCC contents that internet users has uploaded to MGoon portal site for last one week.
While until now most DMB programs are composed of rebroadcasting programs, this program is just fitted for DMB so that Korean people can enjoy very unique program they can not see via television.
I think this is a new convergence service between broadcasting and internet. In addition, it is on the same line that our society is heading for.
Korea is getting ready to provide convergence services to its citizens by making several new tries and implementing new policies, such as promotion of combined services and new technologies- Mobile WiMAX, DMB and so on.
I am sure that Korea is the best market for telecommunication operators to benchmark.

It's Possible to See New Combined Services in Korea

2007-03-15T03:32:00.000-07:00

It will be possible for South Korean operators to provide a combined service from this July. MIC (Korean Regulator) announced that it plans to allow operators to sell a combined service. In addition, existing wireline users are also able to move to VoIP service without changing their home-phone number.
It is expected that Korean users can enjoy several new combined services such as ‘IP-TV + Wireline Broadband’, ‘WiBro + Wireline Broadband Internet’, ‘WiBro + HSDPA’ services within this year.
KT(First Korean Wireline Operator) and SKT (First Korean Wireless Operator) are planning to get into the market with somewhat aggressive business model by providing new combined services between WiBro, WCDMA and their existing services.
MIC expects that this plan would make telecommunication market more competitive and the price go down gradually.

New Business Model with SNS and UCC

2007-03-12T20:39:00.000-07:00

Korean companies have started to take actions to provide UCC(User Created Contents) for SNS(Social Networking Service) Site as a new business model.
Cyworld, which is a South Korean SNS site announced yesterday that it is going to release new version of Cyworld Studio, a movie clip and image edit tool, for its Cyworld users.
On this version, many new functions have been added to the existing version, especially for editing movie clips. These new features are as followings:
- 8 video effects that enable users to make the original movie clips slower and faster,
- 11 text effects with more fonts, changing and adding colors function,
- section edit function, and so on.
In addition to these new video effects, it has new sound effects so that users can add sounds made by their own to movie clips.
In South Korea, more and more users are getting interested in making and editing their own movie clips. Moreover, they want to upload their own movie clips to their Cyworld homepage. Via this new version of software, Koreans are able to communicate with friends on their homepage and attract more visitors.Cyworld has just started making a synergy effect between SNS and UCC with this new software.

It's time to make money by selling your UCC

2007-03-12T00:19:00.000-07:00

Now South Koreans can sell and buy movie clips that they had made for themselves on the Internet. KT announced that it would start new Internet service that allow South Koreans to make money by selling what they made. The service is called AllPot(www.allpot.co.kr) that uses UCC open market function.
In addition to the trade function, people can do making and editing and sharing multimedia contents such as movie clips, music, via this new service.
Moreover, user created contents can be protected from infringement of copyright by CCL (Creative Commons License).

Korean users can do their business on the Internet with their UCC namely, they can make money more than making and uploading contents.

Special Report about IT Korea by BBC

2007-03-11T23:12:00.000-07:00

This special program was made by BBC on May 2, 2006. You can figure out that how developed Korean telecommunication market and what Koreans are doing now with new technologies.
Enjoy your time watching the report.

-From BBC May 2, 2006-

Korean DMB goes to Indonesia

2007-03-11T22:39:00.000-07:00

MIC (Ministry of Information and Communication, South Korean Regulator) announced today (March 12) that it had entered Indonesian telecommunication market with its T-DMB (Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) for the first time in Asian market. This is the third time for South Korea to deliver its T-DMB service to other countries that follows South Africa and Italy.

Currently, Indonesia has population more than 230M, which is ranked forth in the world and 25% wireless penetration. If Indonesian government decides DMB as the standard of mobile TV, this trial service in Jakarta, Indonesia will be a bridge that allow South Korea to disperse it DMB service over Asian market.

Terrestrial DMB enables people to enjoy high quality video and sound on their personal cell phones. Korea has implemented the service in late 2005 as the first country in the world. Millions of Koreans already enjoy the free-of-charge mobile broadcasting.

Create, Edit Contents on your cell phone

2007-03-08T21:22:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, I wrote about mobile UCC era via new technology named WiBro in Korea.
Today I am going to deliver news about mobile UCC related with not technology but new programs that are working on cell phones.

I am very interested in creating my own contents called UCC to upload to my blogs. I have been thinking that it would be great if I could make and edit some contents on my cell phone since I have to wait to come back home to edit and upload movie clips that I had taken during the day.
However, finally my wishes are coming true. Korean major mobile solution companies have started providing new programs that allow cell phone users to create and edit contents on their cell phones. Addition to it, with WiBro (Mobile WiMAX) and HSDPA services, it seems possible that Korean users can edit and upload contents they want to their sites anytime, anywhere.
Mobiders, which is a Korean mobile solution company, is under negotiation with major operators such as SKT, KT, KTF, to provide their new mobile program named ‘MU’ that is for making contents on a cell phone. Moreover, another mobile solution company, Digital Aria, is talking with major handset makers to get its program installed on cell phones.
Until now, cell phone has been used just for simple Internet search service, but it will be a powerful and influential device to our lives soon with the coming personal media era.

The World First Nationwide HSDPA Service

2007-03-07T21:17:00.000-08:00

KTF started the first nationwide HSDPA under brand name called SHOW on March, 1. With this new service, South Koreans are able to enjoy the video telephony service, instant messaging service, conference calling service, etc. rather than simple voice and data services provided at existing network.
This is the first case in the world to provide nationwide HSDPA service. Accordingly, it is expected that South Korea will be a leaser in the next generation telecommunication market by starting not only the world first HSDPA service but also the world first Mobile WiMAX (WiBro) and Mobile TV (DMB) services.
KTF is sure that South Koreans can enjoy their life with the better environment via the nationwide HSDPA service. For this, KTF is planning to offer user friendly services, such as transportation card, credit card, discount coupons as well as video and internet services. In addition, users are also able to make a phone call with their own handsets anywhere, anytime since HSDPA technology is using the same standard and spectrum all over the world.

Although HSDPA service was started last June world first in South Korea, it has not provided different services from before due to the lack of coverage. However, Korean operators hope that there will be a new impact on Korean telecommunication market with the new services.

Mobile UCC Era just around corner, via WiBro

2007-03-05T18:55:00.000-08:00

It would be cool if I could upload mobile clips that I have taken by my own cell phone to my blog or homepage directly.
At the moment, even though movie clips UCC related sites, such as YouTube, are very popular, it is little bit inconvenient to upload movie clips via PC after editing something.
However, there will be a new service that allows users to upload their cell phone movie clips to the sites they want without editing just by clicking one button from this April in South Korea. It means that Mobile UCC era is just around corner. Recently, KT, which is the first wireline operator in Korea, has agreed with UCC Internet companies, such as Pandora TV, Tag Story, to team up for providing UCC contents via WiBro (Mobile WiMAX) service so that Korean users can enjoy the companies’ movie clips on the move with WiBro handsets. In order to provide better user interface, KT are planning to offer not only user friendly clip editing programs on handsets but also mobile messaging and streaming services for one person broadcasting station. It is expected that WiBro service can be used as a broadcasting channel for users by uploading vivid movie clips in real time.

-WiBro in Korea, 2006 01-

Cyworld, which is a social networking service site like MySpace, is very popular in South Korea. One of the reasons why Cyworld has been successful in Korea is that users are able to promote themselves, to communicate with friends and to exchange information by uploading pictures. From now on, people can do what they have done via pictures with real time movie clips. It is possible that there will a new Internet site that provides mobile social networking service.

Cyworld, to go to US universities

2007-03-04T19:30:00.000-08:00

Cyworld, which is a Korean social network site, has been introduced on an American university text book published in this February as a world wide famous social online community service.
The name of the book is “Information Systems Today : Managing in the Digital World” published by the Prentice Hall. This book is used to deliver information of general digital economy systems and its new trends to US students majoring in Economics and Business Management.
On this book, Cyworld is evaluated as an online community service that has created a new economy system via social network same as MySpace in US.

The book says that Cyworld has a dominant penetration rate in South Korea as well as $300,000 revenue per day via new type’s digital item called ‘acorn’. In addition, it mentions that the ARPU is around $7 that is more than MySpace’s ARPU $2.17. Cyworld has more than 20M members in South Korea. Moreover, even at this moment, it has about 10,000 new members per day. Korean people are also enjoying Cyworld services via NateOn messenger provided by SK Telecom, a major operator in Korea, as well as are able to upload their photos taken by their own handsets.

Google attacks in Korea

2007-02-28T00:18:00.000-08:00

As on of our previous entries suggests, Google is having a hard time to gain market share against the established Korean competition Naver and Daum. In order to increase its presence in the market, Google has announced that it would enlarge its Korean R&D center (ET News, Feb. 28).

Google plans to extensively hire Korean IT specialists in the coming months in order to be able to meet the high demands of the Korean customers in the long run. Google announced that it would modify parts of its service to meet Korean needs and to customize other parts by adding new features.

But how come Google is so interested in the Korean market? Are 48 million potential users enough to justify the effort that Google is putting into the market? I believe that there are at least two other reasons for Google increasing its research efforts in Korea. First, because of their demanding nature, Korean users can serve as a testbed for the global acceptance of new internet services. And, secondly, Korea has an abundant supply of highly skilled IT engineers that have been involved in the development of Web 2.0 applications in technology-savvy Korea.

Europe to follow S. Korea's M-Commerce

2007-02-27T18:57:00.000-08:00

Major European mobile handset companies, such as Vodafone, Nokia, Ericsson, had a meeting in London yesterday to talk about new type of handset that provides ‘barcode reading function’. This function can allow consumers to get more detailed information of products that they want to buy through the Internet via barcode reading handsets. In addition, people are able to use coupons that provide barcode by reading with their handsets. Until now, this kind of service and handsets are not available in Europe mainly due to lack of the common technology between handset makers.
*related article : financial times, Mobile groups study barcode plan

Even though this service is very new in Europe and US, it is just one of the common services that cell phones can provide in South Korea. Many types of handsets with barcode reading function have been available in South Korea since 2004 so that South Koreans have been able to be very smart and clever consumers. In addition, recently RFID reading phone has been released in Korean market. Of course this phone has barcode reading function as well. From now on, Korean consumers can enjoy their shopping not only by reading barcode but also by reading RFID.
Within this year, it is expected that Europeans can start to save their money and choose what they exactly want same as Korean people do now. Meanwhile mobile operators can benchmark Korean’s case for their successful barcode business.

Chatting with your TV

2007-02-27T01:58:00.000-08:00

KTF announced yesterday that they would release a new phone (the LG-KB2700) that is capable of providing a bi-directional DMB service using the BiFS (Binary Format for Scences). The BIFS service allows transmission of video and other digital data simulatenously, enabling the use of services such as checking player profiles while watching a soccer match and other forms of interactive programs. The phone will be released for the terrestrial DMB service.

At present, there is strong competition between satellite DMB and terrestrial DMB. After SK Telecom launched its satellite based DMB service in June 2005, LG Telecom and KTF have launched terrestrial services, which they have pushed heavily with the help of the traditional broadcasting companies (KBS, SBS, etc). The intense competition and the extensive coverage of terrestrial DMB are producing impressive technological innovations at a speed that other countries can only dream about.
At present, DMB has more than 4 million users in Korea; 1.01 million subscribers are using satellite DMB and 3.14 million subscribers are using terrestrial DMB.

Animating Korea

2007-02-26T01:55:00.000-08:00

According to an ET News article, american 3D animation studio Kanbar Entertainment (maker of Hoodwinked) is setting up a studio in Kyeonggi province near Seoul. Kanbar entered an agreement with Kyeonggi Digital Contents Promotion Association, agreeing to spend more than 60 million US dollars over 5 years on the production of 3 films in Korea. This is the first investment of this scale by a 3D animation studio in Asia.

But why did Kanbar choose Korea over countries that are more experienced with animation (Hongkong and Singapore, for example)? Well, there was certainly some sort of economic incentive by the Kyeonggi province government. But that might not be the only reason. In fact, Korea has a lot of experts in the animation sector who gathered their experiences working at major international firms such as PDI and Pixar. In addition, with the ever increasing popularity of online gaming, a lot of computer game companies have sprung up in Korea. And the skills of the people who produce the graphics in computer games are actually very similar to those required to produce first class 3D animation movies. In fact, with their abundant experiences in the gaming industry, Korean graphics designers might actually produce new impulses in the world of 3D animation.

Naver instead of Google

2007-02-25T21:11:00.000-08:00

When you are considering to open a new bank account, what do you do?

Perhaps you would try to find the bank that provides the highest interest rate by visiting each banks web site on the Internet. But that would be truly time-consuming.
To solve such problems, most South Koreans use Naver, a local portal web site that is optimal to find practical information based on other users’real experiences. Naver provides a search service named Knowledge iN, which is a database created and updated by users. Koreans tend to figure out solutions to almost every problem they are facing via Knowledge iN, ranging from which places are good for dating, how to get rid of dirt from clothes and which school is the best to study Englishy.

Even Google, the world market leader among search engines, is not doing well in South Korea. Naver holds more than 70% of the Korean market. Most South Koreans use Naver, not Google or Yahoo, to search for information. This might be because Google helps users find links to most referenced sites with its computers trawling the web, while Naver uses its people-created database which is much more practical and useful.
Even at this moment, many Koreans are accessing Naver for their curiosities and problems.

Phone-shopping age set to start

2007-02-22T22:15:00.000-08:00

Imagine watching your favourite soap on your phone, seeing a product you would like to buy (a shirt worn by one of the actors, for example), ordering it by pressing a button on your phone, and receiving the item the next day with the payment being billed to your phone bill. Am I being too futuristic?

Maybe so, but the first step towards "phone-shopping" in Korea was taken yesterday with an agreement signed between TU Media, the country's satellite DMB operator, and CJ Homeshopping, a TV homeshopping provider. The two companies are planning to start broadcasting CJ's homeshopping program over DMB next month. Because of the broadcasting regulations, they are not yet allowed to air a program specifically targeted to mobile viewers. However, in a country like Korea, ancient regulations like these can be quickly modified when they stand in the way of technological process.

From a business point of view, phone-shopping is a very interesting model. On one side it could act as a new direction for traditional TV homeshopping channels who are threatened by the developments in online-shopping. On the other hand, proceeds from phone shopping could also help DMB providers to recoup a portion of their huge infrastructure investment or to lower their subscription fees in order to raise the number of subscribers.

Korea providing DMB to the Vatican

2007-02-22T20:48:00.000-08:00

Korean cell phone producers, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, plan to provide 100 DMB-enabled handsets to the Vatican in time for President Roh Moo-hyun's visit to Rome next week. The phones will be used as broadcasting terminals later this year when the country's public broadcaster RAI launches a terrestrial DMB service. ``We hope that terrestrial DMB will be able to gain a foothold in Italy and other European countries through this contribution by Samsung, LG and the ministry,'' an official at the Ministry of Information and Communication said.

Terrestrial DMB enables people to enjoy high quality video and sound on their personal cell phones. Korea has implemented the service in late 2005 as the first country in the world. Millions of Koreans already enjoy the free-of-charge mobile broadcasting.

Japan's Softbank to strengthen presence in the Korean gaming market

2007-02-22T00:54:00.000-08:00

As most readers may be well aware, the Korean online gaming market is probably the most advanced in the world. Online gaming is highly popular, with 2 TV channels broadcasting nothing but online matches of games like Starcraft 24 hours a day. Professional teams of gamers are sponsored by large corporations and individual gamers can earn $250.000 a year.

Hence, it might not be surprising that Softbank, a large Japanese telecom and media company, is planning to strengthen its presence in the Korean gaming market next month. According to an article in today's ET News, Softbank's subsidiary GungHo Online Entertainment has set up a fully-owned affiliate by the name of GungHo Korea. Softbank already owns the Korean online gaming company Gravity which is known for MMORPGs as Ragnarok and Requiem Online. The establishment of the new subsidiary seems to be a further step to access the leading technology that is being used in the Korean market.

In fact, interest in the Korean market and technology is not limited to companies from other East Asian countries. Last year, for example, one of the world's leading game manufacturers, EA Sports, chose to enter a co-development agreement with Korea's Neowiz in order to access the company's expertise in mass online gaming. Fifa Online, the game the two companies developed together, has proved to be very successful. Thus, it is highly possible that other companies will follow the footsteps of EA and involve Korean manufacturers when developing MMORPGs or, like Softbank, will enter the market themselves to gain access to the latest technology.

Massive Korean Social Network CyWorld Launches in US

2007-02-21T00:09:00.001-08:00

Those of us in the US can finally get our very own minihompies in the newly launched US version of the South Korean social network CyWorld. Minihompies are now called MiniHomes in the US version and they are these strange little spaces for user avatars (MiniMe) and cartoon charms that people apparently spend real money on. Most of the charms appear to cost 5 acorns - the CyWorld currency (around 50 cents?) though purchasing more acorns with cash will not be enabled on the US site until next month. So spend your acorns carefully when souping up your hompie.

The new US site is experiencing some technical problems on its first day, account creation is a little messy but you can go in and look around the site.

According to a report by Katie Fehrenbacher, CyWorld parent company SK Communications has set up a 30 person office in San Francisco, spent around $10 million to the US version and pledges to spend whatever it takes to be succesful in the new market. Still to come are a mobile play and music sales through CyWorld. The company already has localized versions in Japan, China and Taiwan. Localization for most of the rest of the world is in the works.

Up to 90% of South Koreans under the age of 20 are reported to be registered on CyWorld, a market share even MySpace must be envious of. Whether CyWorld can translate its success in one country elsewhere is a great test case concerning the challenges of localization in the social networking space.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that the vast majority of US users will prefer the wide open space and clumsy code of MySpace to the minihompies, acorns and silly cartoon avatars of CyWorld. I suppose the employment screening perils of MySpace could be averted if you were able to say “that wasn’t me - that was my MiniMe!” Whatever.

If MySpace and Facebook are struggling to define themselves as places that include young adults with money, how hard is that going to be for CyWorld? Perhaps in other parts of the world very young children make frequent micro-payment online purchases online (see Finland’s Habbo Hotel - $30m in twenty cent transactions), but I don’t think that’s common practice in the US. Perhaps they are targetting the demographic of adults who love HelloKitty, perhaps I’m wrong and will be surprised.

One notable limitation of the system is that US users are not able to make friends with users in other countries and data can’t be ported from one country’s CyWorld to another. But I guess it’s all about the acorns, anyway.

KTF’s mobile payment service to be in the world

2007-02-20T21:27:00.000-08:00

GSM Association goes with KTF’s mobile payment service

A mobile payment service proposed by Korean operator KTF is uniting the world's leading service providers. The GSM Association announced at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on the 13th that it will launch a“Pay-Buy Mobile Initiative”as suggested by the Korean mobile operator. The GSM Association comprises about 888 member companies, including service providers, equipment and terminal manufacturers.
Once the agreement comes into force, consumers can purchase goods and services anywhere in the world using their mobile payment enabled handsets. The mobile payments will be made using a Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) / Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) card in the phone and contactless Near Field Communications (NFC) technology. Fourteen mobile operators including KTF, Cingular Wireless, China Mobile, and NTT DoCoMo are participating in the initiative.
KTF will lead the initiative and is planning to conduct an end-to-end trial in Korea within this year. In addition, LG Electronics will provide handsets for the initial trial in Korea and Mastercard will also take part. Last year, the GSM Association suggested the global application of NFC, the technology used to link mobile devices to payment and contactless systems. Robert Conway, president of the GSM Association said: “Through the KTF led Pay-Buy Mobile Initiative, users will benefit from the ability to purchase items in a secure and convenient way from the comfort of their own mobile phones.”

Korea, to finish IPv6 conversion by 2010

2007-02-20T20:33:00.000-08:00

The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC), to finish IPv6 conversion for public institutions by 2010

The Ministry of Information and Communication will expand broadband convergence network (BcN) and actively distribute RFID/USN and IPv6. First of all, the MIC decided to sophisticate 8.2 million wired and wireless subscriber networks to BcN from 2008 to 2010, the 3rd stage of BcN establishment. In addition, the MIC will increase from 100,000 lines to 1.8 million lines by the year end in order to expand FTTH commercial network, a fiber optic cable linking project in households.
Therefore, the scale of BcN subscribers is expected to increase to 8.2 million by the year end from 53.3 million last year. Especially, the MIC will make a mid-to long-term plan to convert the high-speed network in farming and fishing villages to BcN and include home network certification in high-speed building certification system.
Furthermore, in order to provide high-quality BcN service, the MIC will establish quality index and standard for IP-TV, WiBro and etc. and establish quality measuring system. The MIC will also actively push forward with RFIC infrastructure establishment such as RFID readers, which can be commonly used by many companies, in the public areas such as roads·airports·harbors. In addition, the MIC will discover new service models and actively support commercialization projects based on the pilot project of mobile RFID executed last year. Furthermore, the MIC will also establish ‘History Management Center’ related with food· pharmaceuticals distribution to manage the distribution routes of food· pharmaceuticals.
The MIC decides to form the IPv6 distribution promotion committee to expand IPv6 distribution and finish IPv6 conversion of public institutions by 2010 through an active support for the introduction of IPv6 for government’s public institutions.