Next-generation networks to be set up from this year


The government said Wednesday that it will speed up the establishment of next-generation mobile communication systems, aiming to lead the global wireless market by 2015.

The Korea Communications Commission and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said they will secure key technologies, such as fourth-generation telecommunication technologies, and build a virtuous ecosystem.

The announcement comes a day after the state-run Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute in Daejeon demonstrated Long-Term Evolution-Advanced technology Tuesday, which is 40 times faster than the current third-generation wireless network.

LTE-Advanced, which boasts a speed of up to 600 megabytes of data per second, along with WiBro Evolution, were also selected as 4G global standards by the global organization International Telecommunication Union in June.

The two new technologies, 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.

Government officials added that speedy mobile communication technology will enable people to watch 3-D and high-definition videos while driving in a car for the first time anywhere in the world.

The KCC said it will begin establishing LTE wireless networks ahead of the official introduction of 4G technologies in the country’s metropolitan areas starting from the latter half of this year. It also plans to secure more frequency bands for the next generation technologies.

The government will work on presenting a mobile platform like Google’s Android mobile operation system, within June through the participation of telecoms and hardware manufacturers.

It will also inject a total of 193.5 billion won ($173.3 million) by 2014 to support establishing infrastructure for the technologies, like creating a global mobile cluster in Gumi, Daegu of North Gyeongsang Province, which tests and accredits the new and advanced technologies.

Going a step further, the government will invest 15 billion won and 6 billion won each in the Web and virtualization skills as development funds.

In a related effort, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy will also devise a plan by June on the nation’s research and development strategy that will direct how to deal with the mobile communications technologies beyond 4G in 2012-2019.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)