Latest Developments in the South Korean WiBro Market

DUBLIN, Ireland--(Business Wire)--
Research and Markets
(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/c6d22c/wibro_services_and)
has announced the addition of the "WiBro Services and Strategies in
South Korea" report to their offering.

WiBro Services and Strategies in South Korea report provides an
overview on the latest developments in the Korean market, where WiBro
(Mobile WiMAX) was commercially launched already two years ago, in
June 2006. This report includes useful information on WiBro services
and price plans offered by KT and SKT, as well as terminals available
in the market, and analyzes the strategies of the two operators. The
report also presents a forecast on WiBro subscribers and revenues in
the Korean market until 2011.

Who should read this report?

This report is useful for professionals and companies who are
interested in WiBro (Mobile WiMAX) services and price plans, terminals
and Korean WiBro market. South Korea was the first country in the
world to launch WiBro services commercially, and is a leading market
full of potential players and new business ideas in terms of Internet
services and technologies. This research report analyzes the recent
trends in South Korea, and provides useful information for
benchmarking and market entry.

On June 30, 2006, a commercial WiBro (Mobile WiMAX) service was
launched in Korea, but due to insufficient CAPEX investment, resulting
in poor service coverage and device line-up, the subscriber growth was
slow, until KT started strong marketing strategies to attract
subscribers in early 2007.

The two operators, KT and SKT planned to spend more than 700
billion KRW and 400 billion KRW, respectively, until 2007, and 1.2
trillion and 700 billion, respectively, until 2010. However, their
actual investments are far behind the goals. KT WiBro service
subscribers began to increase rapidly as KT started full-scale WiBro
marketing in 2007. The subscribers increased 5,600 in April 2007 to
106,000 in December 2007. In 2008, the subscribers are increasing by
about 10,000 per month.

Now, KT and SKT have decided to expand their investment from 2008,
and the WiBro market is expected to grow faster. Moreover, the
availability of VoIP will have a significant influence on subscriber
addition. But this will take a time, as it is unlikely that VoIP will
be supported in the near future due to legal and other issues in the
South Korean wireless market.

In spite of the situation, the number of WiBro subscribers is
expected to increase from approximately 100,000 in 2007 to 250,000 in
2008 and to more than 2,500,000 in 2011. The market revenues are also
expected to increase to 65 billion KRW by 2011.

Also technology upgrades are important for the service to expand.
Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) in Korea
developed NoLA, which is based on LAN technology in 2007 and is
developing NeMA (New Mobile Access), an upgraded version of WiBro.
NoLA is a mobile Internet technology for the users who move at low
speeds by walking or in the car to use Internet at 3.6GMbps, 1,000
times faster than the current 3G data communication rate. NeMA is a
technology for the users who move at a high speed; at 100Mbps while
moving at the maximum of 120km/h. ETRI plans to combine these two
technologies. If it succeeds, the Korean market could witness next
year a service that allows the users to use Internet in a moving
vehicle on the highway.

However, the HSDPA camp is also developing the next generation
HSDPA. HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access) network which has
5.76Mbps data upload speed is being introduced. In addition LTE, which
uses the next generation technologies such as OFDM and MIMO, is
spreading globally.

Currently, the biggest disadvantage with WiBro service is that it
fails to provide a killer application. To become a 4G mobile
technology, voice support is a must for WiBro and a necessary element
for competing with HSDPA and its next generation version, LTE in 3G/4G
mobile market.

Key Topics Covered:

WiBro Market

- Current Market Situation

- Background

WiBro Technology

- What is WiBro?

- WiBro Technology Evolution

- WiBro vs. HSDPA

Operators

- KT

- KT WiBro

- SKT

- T-Login

Manufacturers

- Samsung Electronics

- POSDATA

- LG Electronics

- Raon Digital

- Other Manufacturers

Mobile WiMAX

- WiBro and Mobile WiMAX

- Overseas Mobile WiMAX Services

For more information visit
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/c6d22c/wibro_services_and

Research and Markets
Laura Wood
Senior Manager
Fax from USA: 646-607-1907
Fax from rest of the world: +353-1-481-1716
press@researchandmarkets.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008