LG Telecom offers IS-95C as pre-IMT 2000
service this month
LG Telecom Co. has offered trial services of its IS-95C service, which enables
video as well as audio wireless communication, this month.
The IS-95C service has improved the existing data speed of 64 kbps to a
high-speed 144 kbps, and more than that, transmits color graphics and pictures
both still and moving. In short, it has opened an era in which people can talk over
mobile phones while looking at each other on the screens.
The IS-95C trial service is provided on the liquid crystal displays of PCS
phones.
LG Telecom began preparations for the service, including cellular designs,
equipment installation and communication relay infrastructure, in September last
year.
The service is available in Seoul and some Kyonggi cities near Seoul - Inchon,
Suwon, Puchon, Anyang, Kunpo and Kwangmyong.
The company plans to establish the service network nationwide by the end of this
year, with a view to offering it to five major provincial cities - Pusan, Taegu,
Kwangju, Taejon and Ulsan, among others. This is part of LG Telecom's strategy to
roll out its IS-95C service across the country.
By the end of this year, LG Telecom's 019 service customers will be able to
experience enhanced communication features of the high-speed wireless data
service in the service areas and their adjacent major express ways and national
roads.
"For the first time in the industry, LG Telecom is offering IS-95C on a trial basis,
which is a result of its long accumulation of wireless communication network
technology. This service is expected to help the company push for the IMT-2000
project, called the darling of next-generation mobile communication," said Nam
Yong, president of LG Telecom.
Wireless Internet serviceThe data transmission speed of IS-95C is three or four
times as fast as existing technologies, such as IS-95A and IS-95B, whose speed
range from 14.4 kbps to 64 kbps). Thus, it is expected to further develop the data
communication level of Korea beyond simple voice communication.
For example, existing wireless data service takes about 30 seconds to send 100
pages of 1,000 Korean letters a page, but the time is lowered to 10 seconds with
IS-95C. It is the fastest-ever commercial data service.
Video communication IS-95C is an epochal technology that allows for wireless
exchanges of color graphics, pictures and videos. Industry analysts say that it can
change the paradigm of the domestic mobile communication market.
They expect to see various application services, such as wireless video phones
with which people can talk to each other while looking at their faces, whose pictures
are taken by small cameras installed onto the phone. This service requires mutual
tests by carriers and development of camera-installed handsets.
In short, IS-95C is the first step into the "real multimedia" era of video mobile
telephony and video mail as well as voice communication and simple text
transmission.
Users of IS-95C will be able to send pictures, animation and characters or
download color discount coupons over the phone, a service dubbed "color
graphic/image service." Also, they can utilize a colorful "java game service" and
"video shopping service" which enables them to browse products displayed in cyber
malls through the phone screen.
"Color graphic map/location service" is in the making to show local maps on the
screen, while the company plans to introduce a "multimedia messaging service" to
support image/video data as well as text.
Investment & pre-IMT 2000 The company plans to concentrate its resources on
the spread of IS-95C in the market and improve its profit structure from the service,
while defending its market-leading image and technological dominance.
LG Telecom will invest a total of 200 billion won until early next year to advance
the nationwide setup of an IS-95C network and make it the most available service
in the wireless communication market. It also aims at attracting 200,000 subscribers
to the new service.
IS-95C is evaluated by industry analysts as a kind of pre-IMT-2000 service of
one of the carriers/telecom companies, which all compete fiercely for the IMT-2000
project. In that sense, the service is of great help to LG Telecom in its transition to
IMT-2000.
With IS-95C, LG Telecom has added high-speed data and video service to its
present PCS users. This is one of the ways it envisions making the transition to
IMT-2000.
LG Telecom, which introduced the nation's first wireless Internet service, called
"ez-i," last May, expects to become a giant in the wireless Internet market with
IS-95C service. The service came about as scores of handset models exclusive to
IS-95C, which are installed with Qualcomm's MSM-5000 chips with Web
browsers in themselves, are expected on the market this month.
Updated: 10/26/2000
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