WiBro Gains Momentum

WiBro, Korea’s homegrown mobile Internet technology, has been designated as the sixth global standard of 3G technologies, signaling that the technology is gaining momentum in the global market.

The Ministry of Information and Communication officially announced yesterday, “In the ITU conference held on October 18 in Geneva with delegates from 97 countries, WiBro technology was designated as a 3G standard technology.” It is the first time ever that Korea’s telecommunication technology has been selected as a global standard.

The ministry also said, “We used to estimate the exports of WiBro technology and related equipment from 2008 to 2012 at 21.252 trillion won. But we revised our forecast to 30.9798 trillion won, a 9.7 trillion won increase, on the designation.”

About 40 countries, including the U.S., Japan, the U.K., Canada, Russia, India and Brazil, are either introducing or considering the introduction of WiBro technologies.

The ministry projected that royalty income from WiBro technology will reach $6.8 million by 2024.

In particular, WiBro uses the 4G technologies of OFDM and MIMO, leading to the prediction that the technology will be at an advantage in the ITU’s 4G global standard designation that will take place in 2010.

However, many express concerns that it may not be easy for the technology to penetrate overseas markets because HSDPA technology, the established 3G global standard, is dominating the 3G market.

WiBro was commercialized in June 2006 in Korea, but only 67,000 people are using the technology through KT and SK Telecom.

A KT official analyzed: “It is because the market considers WiBro as a complementary good, rather than a replacement good differentiated from HSDPA.”

Meanwhile, WiBro-related stocks performed well on the news.

On the KOSDAQ, some stocks hit their price fluctuation ceilings that day, with POSDATA gaining 1,470 won or 14.73 percent from the previous day to close at 11,450 won, followed by Seohwa Telecom, which rose 14.92 percent, Kisan Telecom (15.00 percent), Youngwoo Telecom (14.97 percent), KMW (14.85 percent), Inno Wireless (14.86 percent) and Solid Technologies (14.96 percent).

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