Korea Telecom Freetel Unveils Wireless Internet Modem Service
--From AOL.-- Cooters
Seoul, May 9 (Bloomberg) -- Korea Telecom Freetel Corp. said it's the first company in the nation to develop a fully operational wireless service to allow laptop computer users to connect to the Internet without using a mobile phone handset.
KT Freetel, Korea's second-largest mobile service provider, said it will begin signing up users in July and aims to have 200,000 subscribers by the end of the year.
The service, which works via a modem fitted into the standard PCMCIA modem slot in the side of laptop computers, will come in three versions with monthly fees ranging from 13,000 won ($11.71) to 30,000 won. The company refused to say how much they invested in the new technology.
Like other telecommunications companies, KT Freetel is rushing to roll out new services to supplement their income from voice calls, betting the bulk of their future earnings will come from wireless data transmission rather than voice.
More Mobile Services
Along with its three rivals -- SK Telecom Co., LG Telecom Co. and Hansol M.com Co. -- KT is bidding for a license for the next generation of mobile phone services.
Korea Telecom's mobile Internet service will allow a connection at the rate of 64 kilobits per second over the company's mobile phone network.
At the same, the company demonstrated another new service that would allow subscribers to watch live video and listen to sound on a personal digital assistant transmitted via a mobile phone.
While the service is only one way due to the lack of signal width on current networks, it is the precursor of future services, which will allow two-way video and audio mobile communication.
Michael Barlow, a director of Packet Video, which helped KT Freetel develop the technology, said the service will most likely be used as a way of accessing remote cameras for security applications or monitoring children.
KT Freetel shares fell 1.3 percent to 62,700 won on the over- the-counter Kosdaq index.
May/09/2000 3:56 GMT |
