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Tuesday, 03 June 2008 |
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Korean regulatory body allocates frequencies for the further trialling of mobile broadband technology…
One of
Korea
’s regulatory bodies, Korea Communications Commission (KCC), has released radio frequencies for the further testing of mobile broadband technologies. Samsung will receive space in the 2.5GHz band for additional testing of WiMAX; LG Nortel and equipment provider Postdata both get space at 2.3GHz for work with WiBro, the Korean flavour of WiMAX; SK Telecom has frequency at 2.1GHz for the Chinese home-grown 3G technology TD-SCDMA; and the national Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) receives space at 2.5GHz for investigation of MIMO technology and Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) services. In all around 50 base stations will be set up for these new series of tests.
Samsung will reportedly be running the rule over equipment destined for Sprint’s future ‘XOHM’ WiMAX service in the
USA. In the middle of last month the Korean vendor and its
US
customer announced that WiMAX had met Sprint's commercial acceptance criteria, including overall performance, handoff performance and handoff delay. This technical milestone had been passed after extensive evaluation both in the ‘XOHM’ lab environment and with the commercial service network being built in the
Baltimore
and
Washington
DC
area. Sprint said it planned to launch commercial WiMAX service in those cities later this year.
The ‘XOHM’ acceptance milestone came days after the much trailed resurrection of the Sprint tie-up with fellow US WiMAX pioneer Clearwire (click). In its proposed (dramatic) new iteration, the deal involves the duo agreeing to merge their broadband wireless businesses to form a new company under the Clearwire banner, and five investors - Intel Corporation (through Intel Capital), Google Inc, Comcast Corporation, Time Warner Cable Inc and Bright House Networks – pumping US$3.2bn into the new venture. The new Clearwire is currently targeting a network deployment that will cover between 120mn and 140mn people in the
USA
by the end of 2010.
The Korean release of test frequencies also follows the placing of what was billed as the world’s first video call between a CDMA and a TD-SCDMA network. The call was made by Korean president Myung Bak Lee at SK Telecom’s
Korea-China
Mobile
Service
R&D
Center
in Zhong Guan Cun,
Beijing. On that occasion ceo of SK Telecom Shin Bae Kim outlined the Korea-China Telecommunication Cooperation Plan. This focuses on the joint development of next generation technology and on telecommunications service collaboration. SK Telecom aims to participate in the development of technology standards, including TD-SCDMA and 4G communication. While maintaining cooperation with China Unicom (in which it has a 6.6% stake) the Korean operator will seek more diverse business opportunities in the Chinese market exploiting its competencies in the three 3G technologies of CDMA 2000, WCDMA, and TD-SCDMA.
John Williamson |
