The Korea Communications Commission said Wednesday that two key mobile communication technologies -- Long Term Evolution-Advanced and WiBro Evolution -- were recently chosen as fourth generation (4G) global standards.

In a meeting in Vietnam held June 9-16, the International Telecommunication Union passed the global standardization tests for the two technologies, which are intended to be used as 4G mobile communication systems.

ITU is an international organization which specializes in deciding standards on radio and telecommunications.

The organization will complete developing the specific standardization framework for the new technologies by March 2011 and grant final approval in February 2012, according to KCC officials.

“With Korea playing a key role in the international standardization effort, the nation will be able to lead the way in designing core technologies for the next generation,” said Kim Jeong-sam, director of the radio spectrum policy division at the KCC.

The two new technologies, which are already adopted by many European and Asian countries, will enable mobile phone users to get faster access to the mobile Internet at comparable speeds to Web surfing on a personal computer.

Better known as WiMAX Evolution in other countries, the WiBro Evolution’s research has been led by Samsung Electronics and the state-funded Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute.

WiBro Evolution is deemed to be 10 times faster the high-speed downlink packet access technology adopted by the current 3G mobile phones.

The initiative for technology standardization was taken forward by the Telecommunications Technology Association in Korea, which worked in cooperation with groups based in other nations such as Japan and the U.S.

By Cho Ji-hyun  (sharon@heraldm.com)