Strong Tendency of IMT-2000 Synchronous System

In the competition of 3D mobile IMT-2000 technical standard, a synchronous system has been firmed up.

According to the communication industries on August 12, while the schedule on commercialization of the asynchronous system (European system) IMT-2000 of major European companies is uncertain, the introduction of the synchronous system (US system) service has continuously increased, led by the companies of the countries such as Korea, Japan and US.

Morgan Stanley, the US investment banking forecasted in the latest report, “The synchronous system has overwhelmed the asynchronous system in the commercialization competition. The technology of the synchronous system will have superiority consistently in the competition of the technical standard as the investment efficiency is good and the terminal supply is fast over the asynchronous system.”

Morgan Stanley especially analyzed that the business of the synchronous system is promising, taking a case that KTF started the 3D service and then its sales of the wireless data sharply increased. Experts forecasted that the Korea will possess the international technology competitiveness in a field of CDMA system, and the expansion of the synchronous system will be the favorable factor for the advance of Korean companies into foreign markets.

The synchronous system based on the CDMA technology of QUALCOMM Incorporated US, has gained in influence rapidly taking advantage of a slackness of European companies which support the asynchronous system.

In Korea, SK Telecom and KTF started the CDMA ‘EV-DO’ service using the existing frequency band this year, and commercialized the synchronous system IMT-2000 first in the world. In Japan, KDDI started the 3D service with the synchronous system in rivalry with NTT-DoKoMo. ‘Sprint PCS’ of US and ‘Chinaunicom’ of China will commence the 3D CDMA service during the year.

Besides, the European companies of the asynchronous system such as Vodafone and DT Orange postponed the original commercialization schedule until the next year. SK IMT and KT ICOM which work on the asynchronous system IMT-2000 in Korea, are likely to be merged into a mother company and its affiliates respectively. Accordingly, the prospect of the business has been uncertain.

Only NTT-DoKoMo of Japan has commercialized the service of the asynchronous system in the world, but it has around 130000 ‘Poma’ subscribers as of the end of July. The world sales of the synchronous system 3D terminal are estimated at 25,000,000 terminals, but the sales of the asynchronous system 3D terminal estimated only at 3,400,000 terminals.

Han Ji-Hyeong, the researcher of Atlas Research Group said “As the European companies have concentrated on 2.5D service instead of 3D for a profitability improvement, the asynchronous system is not likely to fix as the 3D international standard.”

Tae-Han Kim freewill@donga.com