SCE: Service Control Environment (DB)
SCP: Service Control Point (intelligence NW for services using DB, i.e. Caller ID service, membership discount, etc.)
BTS : Base Transceiver Station
BSC: Base Station Controller (terminal authentication occurs here)
VMS: Voice Messaging System
PDSN : Packet Data Service Node (for packet NW including)
HA : Home Agent
IWF : Inter Working Function
HLR : Home Location Register
VLR : Visitor Location Register
MSC: Mobile Switching Center
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LG Telecom never has EVDO network.
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Targeted annual turnover for 2005 : 10 Trillion KRW.
Various new applications such as MelOn (music service), mobile cyworld (community service), Cizel (movie service), GXG (mobile game), convergence of online and mobile services, and flexible pricing program vitalized mobile internet usage.
MOU : average voice call time per month
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As of September 2005, 42.8% of mobile phone owners aged 12 years or over have used the mobile internet at least once within the previous 6 months.
The percentage of mobile internet users is the highest among mobile phone owners aged 12~19 years(87%) followed by 20’s(73.1%) and 30’s(42.7%).
Users access to the mobile internet for 52.3 minutes and 6.5 times a week on the average and spend 5.7 EUR/month for accessing the mobile internet, which is 12.2% of the total spending for mobile phone use a month.
Most popular mobile internet contents are ringtone/melody download(96.8%), music(45.4%), image download/transmission(42.1%), and game(37.1%).
The most popular pricing program for the mobile internet use is ‘time-based charge’ system followed by fixed charge’ and ‘accessed-based charge’ system.
Over 70 % of mobile internet users have purchased services and goods through the mobile internet.
In 2004, 69.8% of wireless internet users connected to the wireless internet less than 5 times per week. And all wireless internet users access to it 4.9 times a week on the average.
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In 2004, data sales accounted for 19% of the total mobile service sales while the revenue from voice service stood at the remaining 81%. Data sales is expected to continue growing and reach 30% of the total mobile service by 2008.
There is a trend toward more data usage if subscribers own advanced multimedia handsets.
Mobile operators’ mobile internet sales out of total non-voice sales were 51%(SKT), 64%(KTF), and 36%(LGT) respectively in 2Q 2005.
Ratio of mobile internet sales is likely to increase when 3G services with fast data transmission speed fully deploys in 2006.
Non-voice services means airtime, SMS, per-download charge, and value-added services including CID and ringback-tone service
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Mobile phone sales in the domestic market amounted to 15.9 million units in 2004 and is estimated to reach 13 ~ 16 million in 2005. Camera phones took more than 70% of the total sales, and the market was divided by Samsung, LG, and Pantech with the market share of 50%, 25%, and 15% respectively.
Mobile handset production in Korea is more sensitive to overseas demand than domestic demand. Domestic sales accounts for only around 10% of the total production in the country and 90% for overseas sales.
Please note the discrepancy in figures between Table 6 and 7. MIC figure is much less than National Statistics figure. Mostly MIC figure is used.
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Three major manufacturers, Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, and Pantech & Curitel, are controlling 80% of the mobile handset market in Korea.
EVDO : Evolution Data Only. CDMA 1x EV-DO, called also HDR (High Data Rate), is a synchronous IMT2000 technology which has upgraded the data processing speed of CDMA2000 1x (IS95C) technology to 2.4Mbps at the maximum. EV(Evolution) means the evolution from CDMA20000 1x, and DO(Data Only) means that only data processing and transmission speed has been upgraded.
CDMA EVDO is Phase 1 and its specifications have been fixed and commercially deployed in Korea. Phase 2 is EVDO.
ANTS: Access Network Transceiver Station
ANC : Access Network Controller
BSC: Base Station Controller
AN AAA : Terminal authentication server
DRL : Daytime Running Light
Wibro follows 802.16e standards.
Wibro is expected to overcome non-mobility of fixed broadband, low speed and high price of mobile internet, and low coverage of WLAN.
License fee for Wibro Operators : KT - 125.8 bil KRW(100 mil Euro), SKT – 117 bil KRW (93 mil EUR)
Initial business model is a fee for internet access to mobile internet, WLAN, and fixed broadband internet. When the market it ready, value-added service will be developed for revenue generation.
Initial business model is a fee for internet access to mobile internet, WLAN, and fixed broadband internet. When the market it ready, value-added service will be developed for revenue generation.
Although KT has its subsidiary ‘KTF’ that is a mobile operator, KT itself dose not have a mobile business other than WLAN business. In order to cope with the convergence era, KT has been eager to enter the mobile business. Wibro is seen as a means to give a mobile wing to KT, which is why KT considers it an essential for its future business.
SKT plans to adopt IPv6 over Wibro, but investment on that will start from 2006, aiming to achieve 30Mbps in the beginning – 50Mbps by 2008 – 100Mbps by 2010.
It takes 40 seconds to send 1MB MM over the mobile NW while it takes only 8 seconds over Wibro. To download a 4MB (1 packet=50byte) MP3 over the current mobile NW, it costs 120000KRW (100 EUR).
SKT sees HSDPA more important than Wibro as ;HSDPA is easier to realize mobile TPS, cheaper for NW investment, and users prefer a mobile phone type terminal.
Mobile phone type terminal is preferred. Due to price and mobility, users are not likely to buy two handsets for similar services. HSDPA can offer nationwide voice and data services, and therefore is likely to be preferred by users. Once selected, a handset has a lock-in effect.
SKT’s june/Nate on CDMA network, its satellite DMB through TU Media, Wibro, and HSDPA all offer mobile TV service. SK Networks is in charge of handset distribution of SK Telecom. SK Communications and Widerthan.com are contents and solution providers.
Commercially launched in Feb. 2002, NESPOT is a Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11b) wireless internet service provided by KT in the area where Access Points are installed through laptop or PDA equipped with wireless LAN card and a free software provided by KT.
KT has about 15,000 hotspots across the country.
Two ways of connecting to the internet via NESPOT :
(1) Connection through ID and Password
(2) Connection through MAC (direct connection by insertion of wireless LAN card)
Subscriber in the chart includes corporate customers.
Korean companies own many IPRs in H.264 (MPEG4 Part 10 AVC) and MPEG4 BSAC. BSAC, developed by Samsung Electronics, guarantees 96kbps, a CD-quality audio. Eureka 147 is based on OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) for transmission technology.
System E was developed by Toshiba. System E is based on CDM (Code Division Multiplex) for transmission technology.
6 Terrestrial Operators : KBS, MBC, SBS, YTN Consortium, KMMB Consortium, Korea DMB Consortium
Terrestrial DMB is a existing broadcasters-driven service and was born as an extension of existing terrestrial TV service.
1 Satellite Operator: TU Media (SK Telecom’s affiliate company) is the satellite DMB N/W and service operator. http://www.tu4u.com/main.jsp
Satellite DMB is a mobile operator-driven new service and was born to create new ARPU source.
SK Telecom’s satellite is for 135, 144, 154 degree, longitude.
KT’s satellite is for 113 degree, longitude.
TU offered free of charge trial service from Jan. to April.
Programs are sent from the Broadcasting Center to the Satellite using Ku Band. The Satellite sends the received contents to terminals on earth such as PDA or mobile phone using S Band. In case there are shadow areas that hinders signals, signals are sent to Gap Fillers on earth using Ku Band, and then Gap Fillers sends signals to end users’ terminal using S Band.
SkyTeletech is buying DMB baseband chip from LG Electronics and Toshiba. Pantech and Curitel is buying the chip from TelAce. SkyTeletech’s DMB mobile phone IMB-1000 adopted Toshiba’s baseband chip, but its following model will adopt LG’s.
IDC 2100 & IDC 1000 by INNOACE
HDMB 1000 by Hyundai Digital Tech
HN3000 by ChoongAng System
Alticast and Air Code (both Korean companies) are developing solutions solutions to be ported on the terminal and broadcasting server for future data service over satellite DMB. Together with ETRI and SK Telecom, the two companies are developing standards for data service for satellite DMB. Alticast supplied middleware platform for MHP satellite broadcasting service and OCAP cable digital TV.
6 operators do not have terminal distribution channel yet and are unsure how to build the network. MIC and the 6 operators want the three mobile operators to distribute the terminal, but the mobile operators do not see the merits of doing so.
Mobile operators have know-how to build Gap Fillers and also have spaces to install them, which terrestrial DMB operators lack.
While mobile operators want charged service for terrestrial DMB, terrestrial DMB operators (their trade unions in specific) insist on free of charge service. From mobile operators’ point of view, revenue comes from subscription fee. From terrestrial DMB operators’ point of view, revenue comes from advertising fee of enterprises.
MOT: Multimedie Object Transfer. MOT is a protocol that enables file transfer and replay of the received file.
IP Tunneling is an IP-based data transfer technology. IP-based data transfer on the Web can be done over the broadcasting network (terrestrial DMB network) using IP Tunneling technology.
Using MOT and IP Tunneling, new dimensions of data broadcasting is possible through terrestrial DMB. For example, lyrics of songs being heard over the terrestrial DMB can be sent in text file to the user terminal simultaneously. Pictures of singers can be shown in Slide Show, as well.
Samsung and Nortel have supplied 900 BSTs to SKT during 1H 2005
Targeted coverage within 2005 are 23 cities by SKT and 17 cities by KTF.
SKT’s CDMA network is based on 800MHz while KTF and LGT’s are on 1.8GHz. WCDMA and EVDV are on 2GHz bandwidth. Therefore, DMDB handsets that guarantee interoperability between WCDMA and CDMA must be released in order to allow WCDMA to work nationwide.
SKT’s target was to gain 200,000 subscribers by the end of 2005 while KTF targeted 50,000 subscribers, which all failed.
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Samsung Electronics’ demonstration on HSDPA system and terminal during Cebit 2005 showed 1.8Mbps. HSDPA is a software upgrade on WCDMA. When HSDPA is adopted, mobile TPS (triple play service) can be enable.
SKT has signed an agreement with Hanaro Telecom to cooperation for WLAN service.
PSTN-based fixed telephony can be changed to WLAN-based VoIP giving an access to the Internet. In outdoors, CDMA or HSDPA network is used for data service. Commercialization is planned for Q2 2006. KT plans to apply WLAN to Home Network devices.
UWB is a new wireless transmission technology taking over 1.5GHz bandwidth, resulting in 500Mbps~1Gbps broadband transmission speed. Power consumption of UWB is only 1/100 of mobile phone and WLAN.
ETRI (Electronic and Telecommunications Research Institute) is a leading State-funded R&D agency in the electronics.
SAIT (Samsung Advanced Institution of Technology) is the central R&D Center of Samsung Electronics working on mid-to-long term future technologies.
UWB is one of the core technologies for Home Network along with Zigbee and RFID.
Global UWB market is expected to increase from 188 million USD in 2004 to 1,385 million USD in 2007.
Samsung’s Sense X20 uses AirGo Networks MIMO chip.
TTA (Telecommunications Technology Association) is a State-funded Association that establishes and provides technical standards in collaboration with companies, research institutions, and academia. It sets up plans for standardization, establish standards, and tests & certifies standard products.
Budget of government-funded research institutes increased to 2,113.9 billion KRW (1,678) in 2004 from 1,094.1 billion KRW (8,683) in 1998. The substantial growth mainly comes from the increase in government’s R&D projects, which showed a 114% growth from 1998 to 2004. Especially, portion of government-commissioned R&D projects leaped by 167.9% during the period. Research staff of the government-funded research institutes have expanded from 6,081 people to 8,023 people during the period.
Budget for public R&D in 2006 will increase by 15% from 2005.
In 2005, The Korean government analysed the 10 mega public R&D projects in which investment of over 100 billion KRW was put since 1989. The conclusion is that 7 of the 10 were success while the rest (Techno Park, Environmental Engineering, and Civil-Military Technology) could have been done better.
The analysis suggests that the investment of 2.1 bil EUR poured in from 1989 until 2004 will have 314 trillion KRW (249 bil EUR) worth of economic rippling effect by 2010.
ETRI has 1800 R&D staff with master and Ph.D degree. ETRI has about 13000 patents of which 3000 are international patents. It earns 365 billion KRW per year from technical license. ETRI’s main commercialization focus for 2005 lies in DMB and Wibro. ETRI aims to function as national CTO.
- Samsung Group will invest 47 trillion KRW (37 bil EUR) in R&D for 5 years until 2010 with an aim to create 50 world-best products and 70 billion USD worth of brand power and generate 30 trillion KRW (24 bil EUR) of before-tax-profit.
- Samsung Group’s selected next generation growth engine :
large capacity memory, next generation display, mobile communications, digital TV, next generation printer, System LSI, next generation mass storage, Air control system, Energy, Light source, high-value ships, precision optical machines, electronic materials.
- For this, Samsung will hire 6000 new R&D staff each year. On top of the 47 trillion KRW for R&D, Samsung will invest 4 trillion KRW for industry-university joint R&D and 1.2 trillionKRW for supporting suppliers.
- Intel Korea R&D Center was recently set up
- Motorola announced it would set up its R&D Center in Korea
- Korean government is making great efforts to attract foreign R&D Centers in the high IT technology
MIC announced in January 2005 that it will expedite the development and international standardization activities of CR (Cognitive Radio) and SDR (Software Defined Radio)
CR can analyze spectrum environment and find optimal spectrum so that optimal spectrum can be automatically used. Also it can switch between CDMA and GSM.
SDR has the same function as CR. CR is a Hardware technology while SDR is a Software technology
When CR and SDR are realized, one terminal can work both in CDMA and GSM network, and the terminal can find the optimal spectrum on various bandwidth such as 800MHz, 900MHz, or 1.8GHz for itself.
HY-SDR Center is world-reputed R&D center in SDR technology.
Killer applications in 2004 were more sophisticated ring tones (music), characters, and games. Downloading MP3 music files through wire-wireless converged portals gained popularity.
Out of the total mobile subscribers, actual users of mobile internet are only 14 million. How to induce the rest, mostly composed of over age 40s, to use the mobile internet is the key to more revenue generation. Telematic and mobile banking are the new services they can use.
Voice call has reached saturation. Operators are focusing on new non-voice services to sustain growth.
Despite the success of mobile internet service in Korea, only a few top mobile Content Providers are successful and taking the fair share of the growing pie. 7.4% of the total CPs have more than 2 billion KRW (1.4 million EUR) of annual turnover. About 81% of the total CPs have not reached break-even yet. There are over 1,300 CPs competing in the market. 67% of the total CPs are employing less than 20 people. 70% of the total CPs have less than 500 million KRW (400,000 EUR) of paid-in-capital.
SKT has 4,670 menus and 680,000 contents in its mobile internet service.
Most popular mobile internet contents are ring tone/melody download(96.8%), followed by music(45.4%), picture download/transmission(42.1%), and game(37.1%).
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Mobile finance service launched by SKT and KTF in 2001 has not been very successful in Korea until mobile banking service hit the market. The first form was a mobile payment service through credit card built in handsets.
LG Telecom, the country's third-largest mobile carrier, sparked the race for mobile financial services late last year, expanding its user base with Bank On, a full mobile banking solution for Kookmin Bank customers. LG, which has long faced an uphill battle to compete with its bigger rivals, benefited from the mobile banking service after staging joint marketing campaigns with Kookmin, the country's largest lender.IC chip based mobile finance service or mobile banking service was introduced in Korea in 2003.
As of September 2005, 85.7% of mobile internet users are aware of mobile banking service while only 8.4% of those actually use the service. (Source: NIDA)
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Mobile operators revenue from CID and SMS between 2001 and 1H 2005 marked 1,825 million EUR (from CID: 899.7 million EUR / from SMS: 968.5 million EUR). The revenue is divided to 1,031 million EUR, 529 million EUR, and 300 million EUR by SKT, KTF, and LGT respectively.
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SKT’s multimedia music service, MelOn, lets user to download music files an play on mobile handset, PC and MP3 players as long as subscription with monthly flat fee is valid.
Due to development of mobile network and handset, more sophisticated wireless internet services with improved functions are in demand. Entertainment services are leading the trend.
Users can not only listen to music but also download ring tone/ ringback tone and tailor-made music anytime through music portals both under wired and wireless conditions.
Ring back tone was introduced by SKT in March 2002 with a brand name “Color Ring”. LGT and KTF joined the lucrative business in July and October 2002.
SKT’s sales from ring tone service is divided 70% to 30% between MIDI tones and MP3 tones.
MIDI: Music Instrument Digital Interface
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Mobile game is a major killer application in the wireless internet contents market.
Mobile game genres are RPG, Tycoon, sports, puzzle & board, action/arcade/shooting.
More than 33 million handsets capable of playing mobile games have been distributed in the Korean market.
According to SKT, mobile game was for killing time outdoor in the past. But, it is now more used indoor to enjoy the game itself
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The first multimedia content introduced in Korea was black & white animation for the mobile phone screens in May 2000 and its market began to greatly expand thanks to wireless internet-capable handsets with color LCD in 2001.
Currently available moving image contents such as movie, soap opera, TV entertainment program, music video, education program, movie preview, and concert hoop-up can be executed only through EV-DO phones.
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Current trend of celebrity nude collections was a driving force behind the rapid growth of the mobile adult contents market emerging as an important revenue source even to many CPs whose core business was not adult contents.
Data fee for using moving image is still too high.
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Telematics market is divided to ‘before market’ and ‘after market’. Major players in the before market are SKT, TU Media, Renault Samsung Motors, LGT, Hyundai-Kia Motors, KTF, and Ssangyong Motor while SKT, SK, Samsung Electronics, KTF and LGT are competing in the aftermarket.
Telematics services : Navigation, Traffic info, Theft prevention, Location tracking,Remote control, Remote diagnostic, Mobile internet, etc.
Pricing : Fixed monthly fee + info usage fee
KISDI : Korea Information Strategy Development Institute serves as an advisory role on national initiatives for the construction of an advanced information society. It contributes to the development of Korea’s IT policies.
KCC : Korea Communications Commission. The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) is an independent regulatory agency. Established by the Article 37 of Telecommunications Basic Act, it is charged with deliberating issues concerning fair competition environments and consumer protection of telecommunication services, and with arbitrating disputes among telecommunication service carriers and between users and carriers.
BcN is a next generation network converging communications, broadcasting, and internet while offering QoS broadband multimedia service and enhanced security at the transmission speed of 50 to 100Mbps.
The Korean government announced in November 2003 that the government and the private sector would make an advance investment of 2 trillion KRW and eventually induce 67 trillion KRW of private investment in the BcN-related business between 2004 and 2010.
Trial service over the BcN was launched in some parts of a few metropolitan areas in 2005.
The standard specification was drafted in lieu of the platform requirements jointly drafted by the three carriers on September 4, 2002
WIPI : Wireless Internet Platform for Interoperability
From April 2005, all new mobile handsets are required to port WIPI.
As of January, 2005, mobile operators sold about 1 million WIPI-ported mobile handsets in 47 models.
Proprietary platform such as GNEX (upgraded version of SKVM and GVM) and BREW will be used along with WIPI. As of January, 2005, about 17.5 million mobile phones are ported with GVM/GNEX, which is about 48% of the domestic mobile phone market. Of the 17.5 million, 25% is ported with GNEX. There are about 50,000 contents that work on GVM/GNEX.
GNEX Application Manager manages contents downloaded on GENEX-ported system, loads the contents in the Memory, and activates GNEX Virtual Machine to execute loaded contents. It also transfers system events that are delivered by Event Handler to GNEX contents.
GNEX Virtual Machine interprets and activates GNEX contents. GNEX Virtual Machines is optimized to run games and multimedia contents.
GNEX Kernel provides various system interfaces.
GNEX Event Handler receives and processes Event that is delivered from system.
GNEX Device Driver functions as an interface between GNEX module and system. It includes terminal-related interfaces for Memory Management, LCD Display, Audio/Vibrator Control, System Information, Screen-saver/Ring-tone, File System, Socket, Voice Call, SMS, Browser, Serial Communication, VOD/Camera Control, Phone Book/History, Phone Image Control, etc.
As of October 2004, 7 models of KTF, 10 models of SKT, and 2 models of LGT have ported WIPI on their handsets, aiming to increase the number to 50 by the yearend for three operators.
Dica : Digital Camera
DiCam : Digital Camcorder
PnP : Plug and Play
Along with the small & light handset trend, internal antenna or intenna including ceramic chip antenna and DRA (Dielectric Resonator Antenna) are gaining the market.
Megapixel image sensor is becoming the mainstream of camera phone image sensor technology replacing CIF and VGA image sensors, which were main features in 2002 and 2004 respectively. The ratio of VGA to the total image sensor market was 75% in 2004.
After Pixelplus, SiliconFile also started exporting CMOS Image Sensors to the Asian market including Japan, China, and Taiwan.
Megapixel camera module manufactures: Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Sunyang DNT,
Samsung Electronics introduced Korea’s first camera phone 100,000 pixel CMOS module installed in 2000.
PD-6000 with 330,000 pixel CMOS camera module by Pantech and Curitel brought so-called ‘camera phone era” to the country in October 2002.
Megapixel mobile phones have been produced by Japanese and Korean companies since the second half of 2003.
Major Korean mobile phone makes, Samsung, LG, and Pantech, started producing 3 megapixel handsets in July 2004 and Samsung came to introduce 5 megapixel camera phones at the end of 2004.
‘One Phone’ is a new service offered by KT. While at home call to mobile phone is switched to fixed telephony.
‘NESPOT Swing’ is a WLAN+CDMA converged WLAN service offered by KT. When WLAN AP is not available, CDMA network is used.
VoIP over WLAN service will be commercially available by the yearend by Korean telcos. Enterprise customers are interested.
Samsung and LG Electronics started to develop a UMA(Unlicensed Mobile Access) terminal that supports multimedia network between GSM and WLAN. UMA terminal supports seamless roaming between mobile phone and WLAN. Commercialization is expected happen early 2006.
Edge router is a system that enables network convergence and converged multimedia services over BcN. Cisco, Juniper, Laurel Networks are major suppliers.