WiBro

Infobox Korean name
hangul=와이브로
rr=waibeuro
mr=waibŭro

WiBro (Wireless Broadband) is a wireless broadband Internet technology being developed by the South Korean telecoms industry. WiBro is the South Korean service name for IEEE 802.16e (mobile WiMAX) international standard.

WiBro adopts TDD for duplexing, OFDMA for multiple access and 8.75 MHz as a channel bandwidth. WiBro was devised to overcome the data rate limitation of mobile phones (for example CDMA 1x) and to add mobility to broadband Internet access (for example ADSL or Wireless LAN). In February 2002, the Korean government allocated 100 MHz of electromagnetic spectrum in the 2.3 - 2.4 GHz band, and in late 2004 WiBro Phase 1 was standardized by the TTA of Korea and in late 2005 ITU reflected WiBro as IEEE 802.16e (mobile WiMAX). Two South Korean Telco (KT, SKT) launched commercial service in June 2006, and the tariff is around US$30.

WiBro base stations will offer an aggregate data throughput of 30 to 50 Mbit/s and cover a radius of 1-5 km allowing for the use of portable internet usage. In detail, it will provide mobility for moving devices up to 120 km/h (74.5 miles/h) compared to Wireless LAN having mobility up to walking speed and Mobile Phone having mobility up to 250 km/h. From testing during the APEC Summit in Busan in late 2005, the actual range and bandwidth were quite a bit lower than these numbers. The technology will also offer Quality of Service. The inclusion of QoS allows for WiBro to stream video content and other loss-sensitive data in a reliable manner. These all appear to be (and may be) the stronger advantages over the fixed WiMAX standard (802.16a). Some Telcos in many countries are trying to commercialize this Mobile WiMAX (or WiBro). For example, TI (Italia), TVA (Brazil), Omnivision (Venezuela), PORTUS (Croatia), and Arialink (Michigan) will provide commercial service after test service around 2006-2007. While WiBro is quite exacting in its requirements from spectrum use to equipment design, WiMAX leaves much of this up to the equipment provider while providing enough detail to ensure interoperability between designs.

Current Service

KT offers 18.4Mbit/s/4Mbit/s for $22 a month with unlimited data usage.

Network deployment

SK Telecom and Hanaro Telecom have announced a partnership to roll out WiBro nationwide in Korea, excluding Seoul and six provincial cities, where independent networks will be rolled out.

In November 2004, Intel and LG Electronics executives agreed to ensure compatibility between WiBro and WiMAX technology [ [http://www.ibiztoday.com/eng/articleviewer.html?art_id=50032&lang=eng] dead link|date=September 2008] .

In September 2005, Samsung Electronics signed a deal with Sprint Nextel Corporation to provide equipment for a WiBro trial [cite web|url=http://www2.sprint.com/mr/news_dtl.do?id=8220 |title=Sprint, Samsung to Explore Wireless Broadband |publisher=.sprint.com |date= |accessdate=2008-09-11] .

In November 2005, KT Corporation(aka Korea Telecom) showed off WiBro trial services during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Busan.

February 10th 2006: Telecom Italia, the dominant telephony and internet service provider in Italy, together with Korean Samsung Electronics, has demonstrated to the public a WiBro network service on the occasion of the 2006 Winter Olympics, held in Turin, with downspeed of 10 Mbit/s and upspeed of some hundreds of kbit/s even in movement up to 120 km/h [http://www.maxkava.com/2006/02/wibro-torino-10-Mbit/s-in-movimento.html] dead link|date=September 2008] .

In the same event Samsung tlc div. president Kitae Lee assured a future of 20-30 Mbit/s by the end of this year (2006) and 100+ Mbit/s down / 1+ Mbit/s up in 2008.

KT Corporation launched commercial WiBro service in mid-2006 as reported. [ [http://sg.news.yahoo.com/051113/16/3wg77.html] dead link|date=September 2008]

Sprint (US), BT (UK), KDDI (JP), and TVA (BR) have or are trialing WiBro.

KT Corporation and SK Telecom launched WiBro around Seoul on June 30, 2006. More about the KT launch [ [http://kt.co.kr/kthome/kt_info/pr/news_center/news_view.jsp?page=1&no=397&gubun=1] dead link|date=September 2008] .

On April 3, 2007, KT launched WiBro coverage for all areas of Seoul including all subway lines.

See also

* Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB)
* HIPERMAN
* IEEE 802.16
* WiMAX
* Wireless Internet Protocol

References

External links

* [http://www.wibro.or.kr/ WiBro Website (in English)]
* [http://wibro.kt.co.kr Korea Telecom's WiBro site (in Korean)]
* [http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/imt-2000/documents/Busan/Session3_TTA.pdf PDF file: 2.3 GHz Portable Internet (WiBro) for Wireless Broadband Access]
* [http://ssrn.com/abstract=892260 WiMAX: Opportunity or Hype? (a paper presented at the ITERA 2006 academic conference discussing WiBro and WiMAX)]
* [http://www.ida.gov.sg/idaweb/techdev/infopage.jsp?infopagecategory=&infopageid=I3098&versionid=2 News report discussing WiBro technology]
* [http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/tech/200501/kt2005011117243611810.htm News article about an alliance between SK Telecom and Hanaro Telecom for WiBro rollout]
* [http://www.ibiztoday.com/eng/articleviewer.html?art_id=50032&lang=eng News report about the LG/Intel agreement]
* [http://www.tta.or.kr/English/new/main/index.htm TTA (Telecommunications Technology Association) of Korea]
* [http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/sep05/1423 South Korea Pushes Mobile Broadband]
* [http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200606/200606280015.html WiBro, HSDPA Providers Vying for Future Markets]
* [http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=189800030 South Korea launches WiBro service]