The latest phones are dubbed 3.5G because they come between the current third generation and the fourth generation not due out for several years. They’re touted as giving mobile users an experience that’s closer to the kind of bandwidth–3 million bits per second–that they’re accustomed to on landline data connections. By contrast, current 3G technology delivers less than 1 million bits per second–not even enough to send and receive e-mail files with any efficiency. Two Korean telecoms, KT and SK Telecom, offer services that allow users to e-mail and surf the Web with ease.
Consumers, however, seem reluctant to sign on. Considering that Koreans are often early adopters–telecoms often try out their newest technologies on them–that can’t be a good sign for the future of 4G. To be fair, the low subscriptions may be partly due to the lack of network capacity–coverage for both SK’s and KT’s services is still spotty. But even adventurous Korean technophiles seem uninspired by what 3.5G can do. “Consumers are quite content with existing services,” admits Huh Gun, a KT spokesman. “We may be offering too-advanced services.”
The 3.5G service, for example, allows mobile users to check e-mails, but Korea’s youth, its main target, are quite happy with the current short-message service. “I don’t need fancy and expensive 3G service,” says Kim Chang Ho, a college student at Yonsei University in Seoul.
The Korean telecoms seem hellbent on investing up to $1 billion each over the next few years to expand the 3.5G service. They believe it will be a bridge to the inevi-table 4G, which would bring 1 billion bits per second to mobile handsets–enough to do videoconferencing. All the major technology companies are keeping their eyes on 4G. Nextel earmarked $3 billion to build its 4G network. In August, Samsung demonstrated a prototype 4G handset that can deliver high-quality videoconferencing on a bus going 100 kilometers an hour. For the telecoms’ sake, let’s hope enough people get on the bus.
