Samsung Developing 1GB Broadband Tech

At 11:00 a.m. on August 31, a bus from Samsung left Hotel Shilla in Jeju Island, equipped with two 46-inch LCD TV sets to demonstrate the company’s 4G telecommunications technologies. One of the TVs showed a clear view of red and blue tropical fish on its high definition screen using broadband Internet service. Another TV presented two graphs that showed reception signals of two base stations installed in Jungmun Tourist Complex in the island. Sometimes the graphs met each other, indicating the bus was passing an area where base stations change. Even on the spot, however, the view on the screen did not stop in the bus moving at the speed of 60 km per hour.

The seamless handover technologies were enough to amaze people in the bus. Among them were Roh Jun-hyong, Minister of Information and Communication, Lee Ki-tae, president of Samsung Electronics, Lee Jae-yong, vice president and son of Samsung’s Chairman Lee Kun-hee, and your reporter. With a phrase, “Imagine 4G world” on its side, the bus shuttled from Hotel Shilla to Sorisum Museum, a distance of about 2km.

Technologies that enable 100 music file downloads in just 2.4 seconds –

The wireless technologies of Samsung promise a downlink speed of 100 Mbps (megabits per second) for users on the move and 1.0Gbps (gigabit per second, 1Gbps equals 1024 Mbps) for those at a standstill. People can download a movie file in an 800MB CD in just 5.4 seconds as the technologies are around 5 to 50 times faster than 3.5G WiBro in speed.

Vice President Lee said, “Several years later, communications technologies may replace broadcasting. So, we should spare no effort in technology development.” Asked to explain in more detail, he said, “Multinational companies like Nokia have been selling a large number of handsets after developing 3G technologies. But they are not earnestly developing 4G technologies. Samsung will do its utmost for 4G development to make profits in the 2010s.

Users can Enjoy TV, Internet and Movies Simultaneously –

By receiving sound and image data at the same time, the 4G wireless technologies will make a ubiquitous world where people can use the Internet with a cell phone whenever and wherever they want.

In other words, users can watch TV, do Internet shopping and see a movie as well as talking on the phone simultaneously, thanks to the convergence of broadcasts and communications technologies. With a cell phone, people also can get tickets issued and receive a result from their home doctors after sending their blood sugar sample to them.

The core technology of 4G is orthogonal frequency division multiplexing or OFDMA, which makes it possible to send a huge amount of data at a fast speed simultaneously as it divides the frequency spectrum in a subband small enough so that the channel effects are constant over a given subband.

Minister Roh said, “There was a time when Korea increased export with merchandises like shoes but soon it lost its competitiveness. Information technology, however, is a high-value industry that can maintain our competitiveness.”

In the fourth Samsung 4G Forum, around 100 experts from 20 countries across the world participated and shared ideas on 4G. Spectrums of the technologies will be determined next year in the World Radiocommunication Conference and become commercially available in 2010.

The company is planning to invest 100 billion won in 4G technologies. It will be able to debut a handset-sized terminal embracing the 4G system in 2008.

kimsunmi@donga.com