4G Now

Korea Seeks to Participate in Mobile WiMAX Project in Brunei

South Korea is making efforts to participate in wireless internet service project in Brunei on the government and private levels.
 
The Korea Communications Commission recently sent a delegation to Brunei's Ministry of Communications to support Korean equipment manufacturers and operators so that they can participate in Mobile WiMAX service and broadband internet projects in Brunei. 

South Korean and Brunei signed an MOU in 2006 for the cooperation in broadcast and telecommunications. Accordingly, Brunei requested human exchanges; information for frequency management; and cooperation in wireless broadband and IPTV. In response, the KCC promised to make sure that Korean broadcast and telecom companies with valuable experience and know-how in information technology will contribute to the establishment of a thriving information society in Brunei.   

Meanwhile, Posdata introduced its WiBro equipment at a broadcast-communication convergence forum held in Brunei in an attempt to tap into the Southeast Asian market.

Femtocell Intensifies Competition over Mobile WiMAX

South Korea's WiBro service providers are turning to femtocells in an attempt to widen mobile WiMAX coverage, which is likely to trigger fierce competition.

SK Telecom recently unveiled IB Cell, a business femtocell before the launch of service at the yearend, while KT announced its plan to start corporate service later this year and then home service next year.

Combining Wave 2 MIMO and SKT's access technology, IB Cell is easy to install and run even under unfavorable environment. With dramatically improved in-building voice quality, IB Cell will secure WiBro service of excellent quality, according to SKT.

KT emphasizes WiBro femtocells offer high bandwidth connections at home or office through single-mode terminals and increase opportunity of target marketing for operators on low-cost equipment.

SK Telecom says femtocells are smaller and cheaper, but their performance is comparable to macro base-stations. The carrier expects the mini base-stations will contribute to cost reduction and become wider in use as the most appropriate in-building solution for next generation network evolution.

There are also challenges that the service providers have to take up. KT takes problems with auto configuration, self-optimization, synchronization and inter-working with outdoor WiBro network as examples, but anticipates the solutions will be found during the Q1, 2009.

An official from a femtocell solution provider says, "Presently, SK Telecom has more technology issues to deal with than KT and therefore KT will be able to start the full-fledged service earlier." 

South Korea's 4G Patents: Outstanding in Quantity, Disappointing in Quality

Since WiBro, South Korea's original technology, was adopted as an international standard for the 3G mobile communications, interest in international standards has been growing. However, the quality of patent being issued in Korea seems relatively low.

According to Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), Samsung Electronics, Lucent and AT&T hold the majority of patents for OFDMA, a core technology for the next generation mobile communication. For MIMO, Qualcomm, Texas Instrument and Lucent are taking the lead. 

With the overall quantity of patents for 4G technology surging worldwide, the US has superiority in quality of patents and marketing power, while Korea gets low marks in terms of patent competitiveness, KIPO reports. The national patent agency explains quality and marketing power is represented by "cites per patent" and "average patent family size." The US and Japan achieves 9 and 7 cites per patent, respectively, while Korea only 2. In terms of average family size, the US and Japan are 17 and 10, while Korea 6.

As the world mobile communication industry is working on standardization, and system development and operation for services such as international or inter-operator roaming, web access, companies are desperate to obtain patent rights for standard technologies. At the same time, they are vying to make their patented technologies approved by standard organizations.

Freescale Develops DSP for LTE Base Stations

Freescale Semiconductor, Inc unveiled MSC8156 processor, a six-core DSP based on the company’s new SC3850 StarCore® DSP technology and designed to advance the capabilities of wireless broadband equipment.
 
It is an infrastructure DSP that leverages 45nm process technology. It provides flexibility, integration, and cost-effectiveness required by next generation wireless standards such as 3G-LTE, said Freescale.

The MSC8156 is a single processor that replaces multiple discrete parts required by other solutions and is designed to deliver two times the performance of Freescale’s MSC8144 offering. The exceptional performance of the MSC8156 supports the high data rates specified by the latest OFDMA standards and enables the high throughput and low latency requirements of next-generation base stations, said the company. 

SK Telecom Wants a Bigger Pie for Mobile WiMAX

SK Telecom, which has been a Mobile WiMAX service provider in name only, changes the plan and sets out to make the service market bigger.

Presently providing WiBro service through hot zones in 30 cities including Seoul, SK Telecom will construct WiBro Wave2 network across Seoul and start WiBro Wave2 service in two more cities, Goyang and Sungnam, later this month. The carrier will expand the service coverage into 84 cities next year.

To attract more customers, the Korean mobile service giant also introduced a promotion pricing plans including discounts on the basic fees for three moths and a basic fee of 16,000 won ($13) a month plus free data. Besides, the company provides double or triple the amount of free calls for flat-rate users paying 10,000 to 40,000 won ($8 to $32) a month based on obligatory contractual period and halves the hourly fees charged for the calls above the flat-rate limit.

The line-up of WiBro terminals was also enhanced. Samsung Electronics and C-motech released USB modems for WiBro, SWD-H300S and CBU-410S (Cacao), and more WiBro devices such as smartphones and PMP will be brought out to the market.  

SK Telecom will introduce My PC service exclusively designed for WiBro network. My PC supports remote access from a notebook to contents or software in a fixedline PC at home or an office through WiBro. SKT My PC will be free of charge for the one year from the launch.

The mobile service provider says, "A broadened service coverage, new pricing plans and a strong line-up of products will save customers any inconveniences caused during the use of WiBro. Making continuous efforts for wider coverage, we will introduce various services making the most of the benefits that WiBro can bring to people."

A Korean Startup Obtains a Patent for Mobile WiMAX Anti-Wiretap Technology

Withus, a South Korean start-up company announced it had achieved a patent for protection of mobile WiMAX systems from wire-tapping.

According to Withus, the patent is on a system interrupter that blocks bugging by cutting off WiBro communications within the area under the influence of the interrupter.

For more effective blocking, the interrupter can employ WiBro preamble. Withus plans to apply the patent to OCNS or Orthogonal Channel Noise Simulator that is capable of preventing signal spill-over of a WiBro system.

Motorola Demonstrates Over-the-Air LTE Data Session

Motorola takes one more step towards bringing its Long-Term Evolution (LTE) solutions to market.

Motorola said it has completed over-the-air LTE data sessions, such as mobile video streaming, using its LTE Radio Access Test Network and LTE eNode-B platform with a prototype LTE device. 

The demonstrations included execution of applications priority that guarantees throughput using quality of service (QoS) aspects of the LTE standards, the company said.

"This field test shows the progress we've made in preparing to deliver a commercial LTE solution for testing and early limited deployments in 2009," said Darren McQueen, vice president of Motorola.

The LTE eNode-B architecture can be tailored to meet each customer's specific requirements by using frame-based mounted radios and remote radio heads, Motorola said. This design allows many spectrum bands to be supported in the early stage of LTE and accommodates a wide variety of LTE deployment scenarios, the company added.