Korea Telecom M.Com launches IS-95C service
this month
Korea Telecom M.com (KT M.Com), jointly with its affiliate Korea Telecom
Freetel, seeks to take 50 percent of the IS-95C, or CDMA2000-1X, market by
2004, when the third-generation mobile communication known as IMT2000 service
is expected to take root.
The Kangnam, Seoul, company said it is now fully ready to launch the new
mobile communication service with the opening of a test version communication
network for IS-95C, on Sept. 1.
Earlier this month, the company launched a network for CDMA-1X in the
Kangnam area in Seoul. It said its subscribers in the region, where the demand for
advanced mobile communication service is very high, can start to enjoy the service
from this month.
Korea Telecom M.Com plans to expand the service coverage to the entire
metropolitan area by December. It seeks to further expand the coverage to other
municipal city areas such as Pusan and Taegu by February 2001, and to cities by
the second quarter in the year.
"The demand for CDMA2000-1X has not been fixed, but we will lay a solid
ground for profitability by constructing a flexible network for the new mobile
service, taking into account its competitiveness and the demand in the market," said
a company spokesman.
KT M.Com earmarked 500 to 600 billion won for building a nationwide
communication network covering all areas across the country. Most of the
investment, the company said, will be used to purchase network equipment.
The new service is expected to bring about some changes on the part of
subscribers. According to KT M.Com, the fees on service will be changed to a
packet-type system from a time-based one. This is because data traffic in the
service will skyrocket as CDMA2000-1X is designed to transmit data at up to 144
Kbps in speed compared with 64K bps obtainable from IS-95B.
The personal communication service (PCS) 018 provider has not set the fee on
its services as of yet, but said the charges will depend on network costs and other
expenses. It said the prices of handsets for IS-95C will be very high in what is being
called a "cool-down' environment, under which subsidies for handsets are not
allowed.
According to the mobile carrier, basically all handsets are installed with
MSM5000, a core part for the service. They will also have either 4 gray, or color
LCD in high-end products, which will allow access to video on demand (VOD) and
audio on demand (AOD) services for higher prices. The prices will also depend on
technological advancement of a handset maker, marketing time and, of course,
supply and demand, it said.
IS-95C will inherit all functions of IS-95A/B. That is, it comes with 8K/13K
voice communication, 64K bps intermediate-level speed data service and other
hand-off services available at IS-95B.
In addition, the new service also provides 144 kbps high-speed data service,
which requires both upload and download traffic functions. (BTK)
Updated: 10/26/2000
koreaherald.co.kr |
