The boundary line that formerly distinguished Korea's highly developed broadband and mobile networks is fading. In one direction, broadband connections are becoming mobile with extensive Wi-Fi (e.g., KT's Nespot) and soon WiBro networks (e.g., KT and Hanaro). At the same time, mobile phone technologies are starting to reach broadband-type speeds, as EVDO comes more widely available and as WCDMA services are launched. Convergence is nigh and the new Korean network likely will be one of the first of its kind in the entire world. Convergence will mean that Koreans have seamless access to fast, robust information wherever they happen to be in the country.
The Korean mobile and broadband networks, while both very advanced, have evolved separately and are quite different in their composition, network architecture, and business models. Therefore, it should be no surprise that there is no exact picture of what the future network will look like. The Korean model has had to be dynamic to reflect the merger of two very dynamic Korean telecom sectors. Even the official name of the new network has undergone a series of transformations, currently settling on broadband converged network (BCN).
To fully understand the BCN, it is important to understand where different network elements fall into place in the wider scheme of total connectivity. The BCN is being touted as one massive IP network to which Koreans can connect from a wide range of terminals and from nearly all locations.
For a society to achieve the goal of total connectivity, the network must use many different technologies, some of which are more suited to certain environments than others. In essence, different services and activities optimally are provided by different types of connectivity, and the BCN should leverage each technology's comparative advantage. For example, video streaming of movies to a household is best done over the broadband, wired network while mobile telephony in the subway may be most efficient over the existing mobile networks. The key then is ensuring that each of the disparate networks can communicate with each other and pass traffic among themselves via IP.
Network-specific services (e.g. SMS) should move away from being solely a mobile technology and should be accessible via any IP-enabled terminal. This creates the need for new network architecture. The BCN will demand an entirely different type of network plan that involves building a third type of data service.
The Portable Internet
In many countries, mobile operators have envisioned being able to encroach on the fixed-line broadband market through their 3G and eventually 4G offerings. Likewise, broadband providers have been eyeing mobile data provision, until now the domain of mobile carriers, by using WLAN technologies such as Wi-Fi.
However, neither broadband nor mobile operators are suited perfectly for offering fast, mobile data. Broadband networks are too stationary since Wi-Fi and other WLAN technologies ranges are short and there is no effective handoff ability. This makes it less effective for use in moving vehicles. Mobile networks, on the other hand, don't have enough bandwidth to offer truly high-speed, broadband-type connectivity, as was highlighted by SK Telecom's experiment with video-on-demand on its CDMA network.
Korea's policy-makers, broadband providers, and mobile operators have come up with a plan to develop a new data network that is more efficient at offering mobile data than either broadband or mobile.
This plan is called WiBro, or "the portable Internet." The portable Internet is a technology that fits well between WLAN and IMT-2000 in terms of mobility and speed. It would offer a 1 Mbps connection to users for a flat monthly fee. The three licensed operators have not said how much they will charge but industry watchers assume the prices will be about US$ 15 per month, for flat-rate access.
The strategies of the three licensed operators for the 2.3 GHz plan vary:
* KT, for example, has already introduced a seamless offering through its Nespot Swing, a bundled package where users can roam between its own Wi-Fi hotspots and its competitors' CDMA2000 1x EVDO networks, when out of Wi-Fi range. WiBro will allow them to take this latter traffic onto their own network;
* The portable Internet promises to further expand SKT's network in a more cost-effective manner than relying on CDMA alone. Because of their limited bandwidth availability, CDMA networks are only cost effective for voice and non data-intensive applications.
* For Hanaro Telecom, WiBro offers a chance to fight back against its loss of market share and traffic to mobile operators, as well as a chance to become a mobile operator itself.
The portable Internet has several advantages over WLAN and IMT-2000 for delivering data. While Wi-Fi is limited to a range of roughly 100 meters, WiBro will be accessible in a 1 km radius around a base station and be accessible at speeds around 60 km/h. WiMAX will be accessible over a much greater range, though probably not from fast-moving vehicles. Mobile carriers are especially interested in portable Internet technologies because of their significant investment in cell towers throughout the country that can be leveraged quickly to offer portable Internet. This upgrade can be effectuated simply by adding a second set of radios on the towers.
Portable Internet technologies, as envisioned, could handle a majority of mobile data traffic while voice calls will be routed over the existing CDMA and W-CDMA networks. This plan leverages the comparative advantages of each technology and allows Koreans an effective way to have fast data access everywhere. However, portable Internet technologies can also accommodate VoIP traffic streams relatively simply, and in this sense would compete more directly with existing mobile networks.
In this sense, the fixed-line operators, like KT and Hanaro, are positioning themselves to offer services, like KT's One-Phone, which provides users with a telephone with a unique number that can be used on both fixed and mobile networks, and will automatically route via whichever link is cheapest for a particular call (e.g., jumping onto a fixed-line network via a Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, WiBro, WiMAX, 3G or 2G interface).
Korean handset manufacturers are also interested in portable Internet technologies as a stimulus for their products. Manufacturers such as Samsung and LG will build multiband phones that work on a variety of networks. Future mobile handsets, like KT's One Phone 26 may have the ability to access the different types of networks: CDMA2000 1X, W-CDMA, Wi-Fi, and portable Internet technologies. Both Samsung and LG make it clear that the technology for building these multifaceted handsets is currently available, but they simply are waiting for word on how the network will evolve before building in portable Internet functionality.
