WiBro, DMB, IP TV to Jump Out of Alphabet Soup Bowl Into Daily Life
By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
Information technology (IT) is expected to continue underpinning Korea Inc. this year with the scheduled debut of several convergence services.
The long-awaited dream of the cheap Internet connection on the road will be realized midway through this year and will be able to watch TV on the move with cell phones free of charge.
Plus, network-based robots will become a part of daily life this year at an affordable price and the Web-based broadcasting will provide a limitless number of TV channels, as soon as the government regulations are eased.
``IT will play a pivotal role in boosting the nation’s economy in 2006. Its significance will be doubled as the outlook of biotechnology (BT) has dimmed due to the Hwang Woo-suk scandal,’’ said Lim Tae-yun, a senior researcher at the Samsung Economic Researcher Institute.
IT and BT have been recognized as two major pillars to bolster the future of the Korean economy but the latter has lost steam of late in the aftermath of a scandal involving the country’s disgraced cloning scientist Hwang.
Hwang claimed last May via the U.S. journal Science that his team had established 11 cloned embryonic stem cells from patients using 185 eggs, a feat that experts projected would open the door to a revolutionary cell therapy of curing degenerative diseases.
However, the medical exploit was founded to be fabricated and the existence of such technologies also came under suspicion due to its falsification.
This casts a shadow to the overall BT industry here and some are even projecting BT would not reemerge as the country’s main stay in the future.
``Korea had two engines for its future prosperity. Now the country appears to lose one in BT. Subsequently the remaining one of IT is required to do much better in 2006,’’ Lim said.
WiBro: Internet on the Road
KT, the nation’s dominant fixed-line carrier, plans a commercial service of WiBro, short for wireless broadband, in April in Seoul and the surrounding areas.
WiBro, formerly dubbed as the 2.3-gigahertz portable Internet because of its radio spectrum, allows people on the move to remain hooked up to the Web at the speed of the current landline broadband.
To galvanize the early take-up of the country’s homegrown next-generation services, KT plans to invest roughly 1.1 trillion won over the next five years.
``We will spend about 500 billion won in 2006 alone as well as investing approximately 600 billion more over the following four years for the success of WiBro,’’ said KT senior vice president Hong Won-pyo, who is in charge of the firm’s WiBro division.
He said the price of the WiBro service would be charged on a pay-as-you-go basis and the average price would be 30,000 won that is similar to that of the fixed-line high-speed Internet.
Hong was confident that WiBro would win out in a competition with another mobile Internet service of which debut is around the corner, called the high-speed download packet access (HSDPA).
As a turbocharger of the burgeoning third-generation (3G) system of wideband code division multiple access, HSDPA is expected to be launched by the nation’s top two mobile players SK Telecom and KTF early this year.
``HSDPA will not be able to match the data transmission speed of WiBro. The ultra-fast speed plus reasonable price tags will be our major strength,’’ Hong said.
Free Go-Anywhere Broadcasting: DMB
Starting today, LG Telecom, the nation’s smallest mobile carrier, plans to sell new cell phones that enables people to watch TV free of any charge while moving and runner-up player KTF looks to follow suit.
The advent of the user-friendly terminals en masse is expected to catapult the struggling terrestrial digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) services to the radar screen of the general public.
DMB enables people on the road to enjoy seamless video, CD-quality audio and data via in-vehicle terminals or handheld gadgets like cell phones.
Korea’s three major broadcasters _ KBS, MBC and SBS _ and two smaller licensees began transmitting airwaves of terrestrial DMB for six video and 10 audio channels on Dec. 1.
However, the mobility-specific service, nicknamed take-out TV, has suffered from a plague of start-up glitches as mobile carriers refused to sell the terrestrial DMB-enabled phones.
Currently, the service is available through only the latest laptops, some personal digital assistants and terminals dedicated to terrestrial DMB.
Since LG Electronics unveiled terrestrial DMB phones last year, the world’s fourth-largest handset producer and its cross-town rival, the third-largest player Samsung Electronics, combined to develop several more models.
In Korea, only wireless carriers are entitled to sell cell phones to retail customers and they have been lukewarm to play the role of the sales channel for terrestrial DMB phones.
Their reluctance came based on a rationale that the rollout of the free video-on-the-go offerings would prompt people to watch videos in their spare time instead of sending messages or enjoying games through cell phones.
They think such a behavior shift would chip away at their bottom line because it would cannibalize their profits due to the decreasing number of users who transmit messages or enjoy games.
Yet, the continual pressure from both the general public and the government finally prodded them to sell the snazzy phones, making the outlook of terrestrial DMB bright.
``The real debut of terrestrial DMB will take place in Jan. 2006 when cell phone-type terminals are introduced. It is sure to take root,’’ predicted Jeon Sang-yong, an analyst at Meritz Securities.
Cheap Smart Robots
In order to check its commercial viability, the Information and Communication (MIC) last year released dozens of network-based robots in Seoul and its vicinity for a test run.
This year the ministry plans to prompt local firms to commercially launch the home machines with a price range of between 1 and 2 million won.
``Up until now, robots were too expensive for the average household. But our network robots boast of reasonable price tags because most of their functions are outsourced,’’ said Oh Sang-rok, MIC project manager who is in charge of the ministry’s robotic scheme.
The ministry that embarked on the robot project in 2004 took a unique approach of embracing the country’s advanced high-speed Internet infrastructure instead of shelling out big bucks to catch up with other sophisticated robots like Japan’s Asimo, made by Honda.
Smart robots need three basic functions of sensing, processing and action and researchers have tried to stuff them into a machine, the main reason for the high prices.
In comparison, Oh’s team initiated a paradigm shift of outsourcing most sensing and processing capabilities by hooking up to outside servers through the mobile Internet.
``In a nutshell, our robots just provide hardware with the ability for action while most of their software comes from the broadband,’’ Oh said.
Oh expected several types of robots from high-end to low-run will go on sale and the number of models will increase as the new-concept robots catch on among people.
Web-Powered Broadcasting: IP TV
The start of Internet protocol (IP) TV, the Web-based broadcasting full of untapped potential, is uncertain this year due to the ongoing confrontation between government agencies.
IP TV alludes to packet-based real-time broadcasting on the Net, which has no channel limitations as long as the network does not suffer an overload and it enjoys global coverage.
In recognition of its rich upside potential, the nation’s main fixed-line telecom firms of KT and Hanaro Telecom will kick-start the service in 2006.
However, experts are doubtful of the prospects of beginning the Web-powered service this year in the face of opposition from the broadcasting industry.
Wary of the big-sized telecom companies’ undercutting their profits, broadcasters claim that they should take charge of the upcoming IP TV features.
The telecom-broadcasting standoff is substantially weighing on the commercial viability of the Web-casting in the short term.
But observers point out once the service starts next year it would not take long for it to become a mainstream broadcasting format in Korea full of tech-savvy early adopters.
``It is not a question of whether IP TV will become a pivotal format soon after its debut but when. That is the reason why many compete to preempt the service,’’ a Seoul analyst said.
voc200@koreatimes.co.kr
