re: EMC looks at cdma2000 1xRTT Implementations in Korea
A pretty detailed and positive report.
>> Korean Operators Demonstrate Data Rates As cdma2000 Rolls Out
Mike Woolfrey
EMC Cellular
07-Jul-200
The Korean market has long been the darling of the CDMA world. It is the only country that solely uses the CDMA standard and leads the way in cdma2000 development. All three existing operators have deployed initial cdma2000 1x networks, with 1x EV-DO launches planned for early 2002. The technology and applications are still in their infancy, and there are around 400,000 current users. The Korean market has 26.692 million users or 55.8% penetration (EMC World Cellular Database, April 2001)
Initially, the incentive for Korean operators to deploy 1x has been voice capacity, especially for the Seoul area. Most of the operators are only using one channel for 1x, with the option to add additional channels as demand dictates.
LG Telecom
LG began testing its 1x network in October 2000, with full commercial service launched in March 2001. 1x EV-DO tests are scheduled for Q1 2002. LG is trying to differentiate itself from the two other operators, aiming at providing data services. Currently, around 5-6% of revenue is gained through data applications and half (1.9 million) of its subscribers use data. LG hopes to push data revenues to 50% by 2005. As part of its policy to position itself as a data-oriented operator LG opted to build nationwide cdma2000 1x coverage. Using its existing vendor, LG Electronics, it built a network covering all the major cities (Seoul, Incheon, Taejeon, Taegu, Kwangjy) covering 88.4% of the population. The remaining areas are covered by IS-95 A/B networks. Some 2,100 BTS are currently cdma2000 1x-enabled, each with one channel card. The network has a total of 40 MSCs in 10 locations. The PDSN (the router to the IP backbone) is supplied by Cisco.
LG believes its decision to upgrade its network rather than overlay with new equipment has brought a number of benefits. The cost, around $24,100 per BTS (a total of $78.5 million), to upgrade is set against the competitors' costs of around $500-800 million to overlay. The nationwide upgrade was uncomplicated, with the only major changes being new boards/channels, and a remote software upgrade to elements such as PDSN, MCPA (Multi-carrier power amplifier). The network stability was unaffected due to the fact that it was essentially the same network with one new channel card. This means that the end user will see no difference. Although the move from its existing cdmaOne network to cdma2000 1x has been fairly smooth LG expects the change to 1x EV-DO not to be as easy as its competitors, who chose an overlay to existing networks rather than an upgrade path. This is mainly due to the fact that existing backhaul systems like the HLR will not be able to handle the higher bandwidth provided by the RAN.
With the network up and running LG has monitored network performance in an attempt to optimise and plan for further channel upgrades.
Having seen initial results, LG opted to cap the data rates at 80Kbps. The results above are based on the users experience being capped at 80Kbps. This was done after tests showed that at the optimum speed for 1x 144Kbps capacity was limited to one or two users per cell, per sector, per channel. LG opted to increase the number of data users to four or five by capping the data rate.
With LG's target market being data users it will monitor the need to increase 1x-enabled channels as users dictate. At present, as LG has around 10,000 data users, a second channel card is not needed. However, LG believes the introduction of colour handsets () will kick start the market for data applications, although it has concerns whether the $400 charge will be too much for the average Korean consumer. Existing four-grey scale phones have failed to catch the consumers attention. Applications remain largely WAP-based text services, although gaming and the downloading of logos continue to grow in popularity. One consumer has even been reported spending $10,000 on games during May 2001 alone. LG has a current agreement whereby content providers receive 80-90% of the revenue, while LG takes the remaining 10-20%. LG also sees the introduction of GPS location as a means to extending the range of applications available to the consumer. Qualcomm expects the first of its MSM5100 chipsets (gpsOne-enabled) to be in devices by the end of 2001. To this extent LG is forecasting one million 1x users by the end of 2001. Other target areas for LG include machine-to-machine communications, especially with consumer penetration at a relatively advanced stage.
SK Telecom
Korea's largest operator deployed the world's first cdma2000 1x network. Services were launched in October 2000. One could argue that SK's network was the world's first 3G network, as the data rates of 144Kbps meet the ITU's requirements. The network is currently supporting around 300,000 users. The deployment was split into three phases. The first saw the four largest cities (Seoul, Inchon and others) covered. Kwonki and Taejon followed in November, taking the total of cities covered to 10. The final phase saw Pusan, Taegu, Kwangju and Ulsan on air in April 2001. The 1x network now stands at 1,737 BTS and 13 MSCs. All of this equipment has been supplied by Samsung with 3Com and Cisco supplying the PDSN. Lucent is supplying equipment for testing and was to supply the Pusan area, but the equipment is believed to have failed. By the year end SK will have deployed 1x in 81 cities with 18 MSC and over 1,800 BTS with a target subscriber base of around 2-3 million.
SK's original cdmaOne network is a mixture of Samsung and LG Electronics equipment. The move from cdmaOne to cdma2000 was not as smooth as a simple channel upgrade. In using Samsung's cdma2000 1x system SK had to overlay rather than upgrade its existing network. This required new BTS and BSCs. All of this was done at a cost believed to be around $900 million. The upgrade path does bring certain advantages, the move to 1xEV will be easier, as no new equipment will be needed (HLR or other).
Having launched the network back in October 2000, SK has had some experience in offering 1x services. Data was not the primary reason for deploying the network though. Voice capacity in the metropolitan area of Seoul was becoming tight. SK had two options: one was to upgrade the existing 2G network (cell splitting, micro networks) or to install a 1x channel card to increase voice capacity. At the same time it would use the data capability of the network to differentiate its service from competitors by promoting increased battery life and new services. Data usage has been limited to non-bandwidth sensitive applications, such as messaging and downloading of ringtones.
SK Telecom has not limited the data rates available to users, hence the second largest group (16.7%) of results being in the 0-8Kbps range. The results include occasions when calls were dropped or not connected. Despite users 'competing' for data coverage the average throughput on SK's Seoul network is 71.5Kbps (peak experience around 120Kbps). A figure is comparable to LG's, which opted to cap services at 80Kbps.
Like LG, SK believes the introduction of colour handsets will see the take-up of higher data speed applications. Services that SK is currently developing include:
- Music video
- Video chatting
- Video mail + clips
- Still images and photos
- Movie previews
- Video catalogues
- Network games
- MP3 transfers
- Navigation and map searching
- Location and traffic information
- Plus existing content like banking, stocks, advertising and mcommerce.
KT
KT launched its initial 1x services in May 2001 but despite being last to launch the first phase of cdma2000 deployment it is perceived to have the most aggressive EV-DO plans. EV-DO services are scheduled to launch for the 2002 World Cup (May). Like SK Telecom, KT opted to overlay its 2G network rather than upgrade its existing system. Samsung had previously supplied around 70% of the 2G infrastructure, including the RAN, MSC and HLR. Samsung is the sole supplier for the 3G RAN, with the PDSN from another party. By opting to overlay, the network cost is believed to be around $500 million.
The current 1x network covers the major urban areas, using 900 BTS, 5 MSCs and serving around 100,000 users. Nationwide coverage will be complete by the end of 2002, with a total of 1,500 BTS. KT is aiming for around 900,000 users at the end of 2001.
The 1x system has not seen any great difference in voice performance, with a small rise in call success rate (97.7% to 98%). At this stage the effect on voice capacity is largely unknown. Data call completion is the same as voice, with average throughput around 105Kbps after a six second connection.
KT believes that the introduction of higher speed data will drive an increase in data usage. It estimates the network supports around 3.8 million data users. The most popular activities being largely games and downloads.
Summary
Korean operators are quite rightly proud of being the first nation to offer 3G networks. The government may wish to classify this as 2.5G, but to all intents and purposes the networks are 3G, according to ITU definitions. But like the rest of the industry there is too much focus is on data speeds. The issue is now whether or not the data speeds can be used to create mass market applications. The initial 1x deployments have been and will be largely used to increase voice capacity. The introduction of colour handsets is seen as a key driver for the growth of higher bandwidth applications.
The cdma2000 market is up and running and a national subscriber base of 400,000 users is testament to this. There are currently 10-12 handset models available on the market, with 32 models expected by the end of 2001, but now that the operators have the system and hardware, attentions are turning to making the technology profitable. This can only done through the continued development of applications. <<
- Eric - |
