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Samsung Electronics¡¯ information and communication chief Lee Ki-tae said Monday the age when mobile phones can control all electric home appliances and locate information from peers at a distance was just around the corner. ¡°Korea should become a global leader in the wireless communication field, as it did in the high-speed Internet sector,¡± he said. He was speaking at an international workshop on fourth-generation mobile communication the company organized in Jeju Island.
Some 140 global communication and electronics experts and representatives of firms like Japan¡¯s NTT, KDDI and British Telecom (BT) participated in the forum. Samsung has been hosting the event for three years. It aims to lead fourth-generation technology which is expected to be commercialized by 2010.
Wireless communication is moving from the third WCDMA generation to 3.5 generation WiBro. The fourth generation service will make wireless communication 50 times faster, allowing downloads of large movie and music files in several minutes.
Samsung Electronics also demonstrated the transitional WiBro technology. WiBro is fast wireless technology that can be used in moving cars. At the demonstration, Samsung made video phone calls and surfed the Internet in a car running 80 kmph between the Jeju Shilla Hotel and the International Convention Center Jeju.
Lee said the company would release devices for the WiBro service in November. Cards that can be inserted to PCs and notebook computers will be first, followed by WiBro cell phones and PDAs.
KDDI and BT are reportedly interested in the technology. Some of them have already opened WiBro labs in their countries. KDDI reportedly formed an alliance with Samsung Electronics to study post-WiBro technology.
¡°Korea has been distressed about lack of technology in communication markets in the past 20 years, in the fourth-generation services market at least that is no longer true,¡± Lee said.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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