Korea: KTF's 3G and 4G Transition to 3GPP Technologies
>> KTF on the Right Track off CDMA
Telecoms Korea
17 June 2008
tinyurl.com
KTF, Korea' second largest mobile carrier is making rapid progress in its efforts to grow out of CDMA. The company announced its WCDMA (HSDPA) subscribers topped 6 million as of June 14, accounting for 42% of total 14 million subscribers to KTF's mobile service as a whole. In other words, CDMA makes up 58%.
Adding another 3 million in about 6 months after passing the 3 million mark in December, 2007 indicates the company's transfer to WCDMA is going on by leaps and bounds, according to KTF. Growing at this rate, the number of subscribers will be well over 7.7 million, the original goal for the year end, the company added.
Meanwhile, among KTF WCDMA subscribers, 52.1% are male and 47.9% female, showing higher percentage of female users than with CDMA (for which male users are 55.3% and female are 44.7%).
Among different age groups, subscribers in their twenties represent the highest percentage of 22.3%, while those between the ages of 10 and 19, and those in their thirties are 22.2% and 21.5%, respectively, confirming the popularity of WCMDA among the youth. Among CDMA users, thirty- and forty-something users account for 23.4% each, while those in their twenties 15.7%.
>> KTF CEO Says, "We are Developing LTE for 4G"
Telecoms Korea
Tuesday, 17 June 2008
tinyurl.com
KTF, Korea’s largest WCDMA service provider, chose LTE or Long Term Evolution for 4th-Generation mobile service. President Young-Chu Cho of KTF said at Seoul EHR Forum 2008 held as a parallel even to the OECD Ministerial Meeting on Tuesday at COEX, Seoul, “KTF is working on the development of LTE, one of the 4G candidates with Samsung Electronics and ETRI.”
With KT providing Mobile WiMAX service, another candidate for 4G standard, KTF’s choice of LTE seems to reflect the telecom group’s attempt to achieve a certain presence in both technologies. The mobile carrier also considered the fact that NTT DoCoMo, its strategic partner already decided to support LTE.
In the US, Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility already confirmed their choice of LTE.
With carriers increasingly tuning to LTE, equipment providers are in a hurry to change their plans. Nortel which has made continuous investment in WiMAX is reportedly to switch its development focus to LTE. LG Electronics has concentrated on LTE from the very beginning.
- Eric - |
