re: Korea 1xRTT commercial launch articles
<< I've been thinking about these articles since I posted them this morning - and many things about them seem fishy to me... >>
I to read these (and the few that have followed) and if they are not actually fishy they sure don't tell a very complete story.
Prior to these articles being published, I had been scouring the Korean web sites for some inkling of what was causing the delay (almost month to month push back) in full scale commercial launch.
Certainly the sub cutback could account for the lack of a marketing push, but only 2 WAP enabled phone models, have been available at SKT.
One thing that seems pretty clear, is that SKT (and Shingsei) have been expecting to offer 1xRTT 144 kbps AOD & VOD capabilities.
1xRTT AOD/VOD phones and services has been heralded since the commercial trials began in Korea in October. The original target for full commercial services using AOD/VOD was December.
Virtually every comment in the Korean press as full commercial launch(es) were pushed back almost month to month mentioned the need for (or lack of) AOD/VOD handsets and development of AOD/VOD services (as well as payment solutions).
The September 29 the SKT announcement of the 10/1 launch stated:
At the ceremony, the company will demonstrate various multimedia services, says a company official. The demonstration will include hooking up a handset to a notebook computer and downloading a video file at 144Kbps, two to ten times faster than the existing services, maintaining video of LAN-quality ... He added, °In addition to high-speed wireless data service currently available, we are planning to introduce a new handset model that has VOD/AOD-enabling features, which will allow users to download and play television, movies, music videos and MP3 files.
The Korea Herald reported on 10/2:
>> SK Telecom Starts World's First Mobile Multimedia Data Service
koreaherald.co.kr
It will be some time before the public can get a taste of what the company claims is a service very similar to 3G (third-generation mobile telecom) service. The supply of wireless handsets that can access the latest service using Qualcomm-developed technology, SK Teletec's Sky model in this case, will be limited to 20,000 and they will only be available later in the month ... Consumers wishing to take advantage of the service will have to wait until the end of December at the earliest, when wireless handsets that can support video on demand (VOD) and audio on demand (AOD) are expected to hit local shelves. It remains uncertain whether the handsets needed to exploit the new service will actually arrive even then.
"Samsung Electronics, which is developing handsets with color LCD, VOD and AOD, said it would not be possible to complete the development of new handset before the end of the year," ... <<
Presumably the handset referred to was the Samsung SCH-X200 or possibly the SPH-X2000:
run.to
cellular.co.za
The AOD/VOD software to be employed was from packetVideo of San Diego and is described in the article below.
cdg.org
>> SK Telecom and PacketVideo to Conduct Consumer Field Trial of Wireless Media in Korea
9/27/00
SK Telecom, Korea's largest wireless service provider, and PacketVideo Corporation, the global leader in wireless media, today announced that SK Telecom will conduct a consumer field trial of PacketVideo's wireless media technology in South Korea.
This represents the first wireless media consumer field trial in the Korean market.
These trials will test the delivery of PacketVideo's wireless media technology over SK Telecom's CDMA IS-95C (3G 1X) nationwide wireless network and will be accessible to select consumers using video-enabled mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs).
Consumers will have access to a variety of live cameras positioned in various locations around South Korea, in addition to pre-recorded video clips, including local news, movie trailers, games and music videos.
"Our new alliance with PacketVideo fully supports SK Telecom's customer-centric approach and our vision to provide our subscribers with the most advanced services available on the market today," said Seong Jae Lee, vice president of SK Telecom. "SK Telecom selected PacketVideo as a trial partner because they are the market leader with the first end-to-end MPEG-4 solution highly optimized for wireless networks and they met our high-standards for advanced services to the Korean market."
The SK Telecom/PacketVideo consumer field trial will provide the companies with intelligence on user preferences for wireless multimedia applications, in addition to network scalability and impact. The trials, which are expected to occur from October through December 2000, will serve as a precursor to SK Telecom's full commercial launch during the first quarter of 2001.
"SK Telecom's progressiveness and global vision of implementing high-speed wireless data services is precisely why they are the market leaders in Korea," said James Carol, CEO and co-founder of PacketVideo. "We look forward to building a prosperous relationship with SK Telecom and working toward a commercial deployment of wireless media services to their consumers."
PacketVideo's wireless media solution, PVPlatform(TM), is the first commercially available end-to-end solution designed to provide encoding, transmission and decoding services that support all major digital wireless telephony standards in use today as well as next-generation wireless networks currently being developed.
PacketVideo's platform is based on the MPEG-4 (Motion Pictures Expert Group 4) compression standard, which defines a common framework for delivering video, audio and other multimedia content over error-prone communications networks. PacketVideo's products offer error-resilient technology that recognizes and conceals errors inherent in wireless networks, enabling mobile information devices to receive enhanced video image quality.
About SK Telecom
SK Telecom, the largest cellular carrier in Korea, is a major wireless player on a global basis with its influence on the development of the global mobile industry. SK Telecom enjoys its excellent reputation of top-tier customer service and proven technological capability by commercializing CDMA-based wireless services for the first time in the world. The company launched a mobile data service called "n.TOP" last year and achieved an astonishing 2.5 million data users in less than one year, which accounts for 21% of its 12 million subscribers.
SK Telecom believes that "n.TOP" will be Korea's largest Internet service provider and could become an example for the global data revolution. SK Telecom is now rolling out CDMA IS-95C, a high data rate platform of 144 Kbps, nationwide to provide its customers with more advanced mobile data services. Korea is one of the hottest mobile communication markets in the world, led by SK Telecom's initiative toward the creation of a global mobile community.
About PacketVideo Corporation
PacketVideo is the global leader in wireless media. The company's award-winning MPEG-4 compliant encoding, distribution and decoding software enables content providers and carriers to deliver rich media, not just data, to mobile users anytime, anywhere over any digital wireless network. PacketVideo was recently included in the Red Herring 100 as one of fifty private companies whose products, services, or business models are most likely to change the world.
Founded in 1998, PacketVideo is based in San Diego, California, in the heart of "Telecom Valley." PacketVideo's investors include Credit Suisse First Boston, Intel Capital (Nasdaq:INTC), Nexus Group LLC, Philips (NYSE:PHG), QUALCOMM Incorporated (Nasdaq:QCOM), Reuters Group PLC (Nasdaq:RTRSY), members of the Rockefeller family, Siemens Mustang Ventures, Sonera (HEX:SRA) (NASDAQ:SNRA), Sony Corporation of America, Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN), Time Warner (NYSE:TWX), and others. To learn more, visit www.packetvideo.com. <<
So maybe its the sub cut back ... the MPEG chip ... the PacketVideo software ... the paymnet mechanisms ... approval of packet data billing ... the average user rate ... batteries ... power .... network stability ... network buildout .... debugging of this that or the other thing ... whatever.
But there sure aren't any AOD/VOD handsets yet.
Where are you hiding them? <g>
"God send Mobiles".
I do not, by the way, find anything unususal or foreboding about taking 6 months or more to stabalize a new technology. Each future revision will add capability. As for AOD/VOD, while the data rate and MSM chipsets may play a part, I really think that other chips or the server software, probably play a major role.
Maybe we can't expect to do AOD/VOD with 1xRTT Revision A. Maybe we won't do it with revision B and the MSM5100. Maybe we wait for 1xEV.
Given the bursty nature of mobile wireless telephony it may be a little premature to expect accceptable quality AOD/VOD with peak data rates of 153 kbps less whatever overhead applies to voice telephony. Eventually we may see it however.
- Eric - |
