03 May 2002
World
Cup hosts compete on phones, not field
(IDG)
-- The only way South Korea and Japan
could ever face each other in the World
Cup soccer tournament they will jointly
host one month from now is if each makes
it through to the final -- an unlikely
prospect.
However,
that doesn't mean the co-hosts won't be
battling on other fronts. The two Asian
countries are fast becoming rivals in IT
and telecommunication markets, and will
be trying hard during the tournament to
convince visitors that their country is
the most advanced.
Nowhere
can this race be seen better than in
wireless telecommunication, where the
battle has already begun. It explains
why, while cellular carriers in Europe
and North America have been postponing
3G (third-generation) plans, the
carriers in Japan and South Korea have
been racing ahead with theirs.
Japan's
NTT DoCoMo Inc. launched commercial
service on its 3G W-CDMA (Wideband Code
Division Multiple Access) cellular
network in October last year and kicked
off the battle. While DoCoMo proclaimed
its 3G service as the world's first,
South Korean carriers complained that
their CDMA2000 services, launched
earlier in the year, deserve this title.
The claim
was dubious; at 144k bps (bits per
second), the CDMA2000 1x networks just
make it into the International
Telecommunication Union's definition of
3G. However, the ITU rates a 3G system
as one which can provide 144k bps or
faster from a moving vehicle -- and
there the Korean operators report an
average speed of 70k bps to 80k bps. The
technology is also an upgrade to their
existing second generation networks, and
not operating in 3G spectrum, for which
the carriers have additional licenses.
The South
Korean carriers managed to get the last
laugh. With the World Cup approaching
fast, they upgraded the network again.
In November they launched trials of a
system with the unwieldy name CDMA2000
1x EvDO (Evolution Data Only). The new
network will, in perfect conditions,
whisk data along its way at 2.4M bps --
more than six times the speed of
DoCoMo's service and enough to qualify
as the fastest cellular service in the
world.
Network
coverage is still incomplete but SK
Telecom Co. Ltd. has been racing to
offer coverage in each of the World Cup
host cities by the time the tournament
begins.
"In
May we will cover 26 cities nationwide
including all the World Cup
cities," said Kwon Chul Kuen, a
spokesman for SK Telecom Co. Ltd. He
said the upcoming tournament is very
important for the carrier because it
will put it on the world stage.
"In
June, we will introduce all foreigners
to our company's capabilities of
wireless Internet. EvDO is very
important because it is (the fastest in
the world)," he said.
Of the
six carriers, three in each country,
only Japan's J-Phone Co. Ltd. won't have
a new cell phone network up and running
in time for the tournament. The carrier,
which is owned by Britain's Vodafone
Group PLC, had planned to launch its own
W-CDMA network in June, but recently
postponed the launch to December this
year blaming delays in the
standardization process.
South
Korea and Japan are not alone in
building infrastructure to support a
major sporting event. Beijing is
planning to invest US$3.6 billion in
information technology in the run up to
the 2008 Olympic Games, and a 3G
cellular network is among the plans.
Organizers have said the network will
allow athletes to register their arrival
via their cell phones.
Article
from CNN.com see
more articles
|