IP: Fwd: Mobile Web Phone in Korea Bodes Ill for Future of '3G'

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> From: "the terminal of Geoff Goodfellow" <geoff () iconia com>
> To: "Dave E-mail Pamphleteer Farber" <farber () cis upenn edu>
> Subject: Mobile Web Phone in Korea Bodes Ill for Future of '3G'
> Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 09:43:32 +0200
> X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2911.0)
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>
> Mobile Web Phone in Korea
> Bodes Ill for Future of '3G'
> By H. ASHER BOLANDE
> Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
>
> SEOUL, South Korea -- He has some 65 engineers and $31 million in high-tech
> gear at his disposal, but he considers his 16-year-old son the ultimate test
> of whether his company's effort to fuse the Internet with mobile phones is
> on target.
>
> So when Jae Byun got his hands on a snazzy new video-on-demand phone, he
> gave it to June Suk, who took it to school to show off. The verdict, from a
> jury of teenage friends? Not only did the expansive color screen make the
> phone feel ungainly -- "like a hammer," his son said -- but the kids
> couldn't play downloaded music, because the handset lacked a high-quality
> speaker.
>
> The complaints aren't unusual for a mobile operator trying to stake out
> ground on the wireless Internet. But unlike other operators, SK Telecom Co.,
> South Korea's top mobile operator, is no longer in the test phase. It has
> been a year since the commercial launch of its cdma2000 1x wireless Internet
> service, which is still the closest thing available anywhere to so-called
> third-generation, or 3G, technology. Companies world-wide have spent and
> borrowed billions of dollars to buy operating licenses and build networks
> for 3G, which involves technical challenges similar to 1x's.
>
> If 1x doesn't fly, 3G is in trouble.
>
> --SNIP--
>
> http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB998431544465521260.htm
>
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> geoff.goodfellow () iconia com, Prague CZ * tel/mobil +420 (0)603 706 558
> "success is getting what you want & happiness is wanting what you get"
> http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/01/biztech/articles/17drop.html



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