Korean-Made DMB Tech Put on Global Test
- By Lim Chu-hwan, President of Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute

Last year was a stellar year for Korea, which began to gain global recognition for terrestrial mobile Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) technology developed with heart and soul. The reason is that the DMB technology was adopted as the standard of the World DAB (digital audio broadcasting) Forum last December. Starting with Munich, Germany, Korea conducted a demonstration tour on the technology in such countries as Brazil, UK, and France, displaying its technological prowess in the category of mobile television, and receiving international acclamation there.
Despite the limit of Korea's technology development, the feat of the DMB technology is that it possesses an undeniably unique value in terms of supply and demand. Broadcasting operators will create a high value product by offering new mobile TV services at lower prices, while users will be allowed to watch broadcasting programs while on the move. As a result, the forthcoming DMB services are expected to serve as a new growth engine in the broadcasting industry.
In reality, the terrestrial DMB is the first Korean-made standard technology. It not only gives us a new opportunity, but also brings us a new burden of exploring the global market on our own. In the case of Korea's commercialization of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), a cellular technology developed by Qualcomm, Korea's dependence on the technology has been a disadvantage. But Korea has been able to gain support from Qualcomm in exploring overseas markets. Unlike the terrestrial CDMA technology, it is no other than Korea that should try hard to export the DMB technology to overseas markets.
Doubts over the dissemination of the terrestrial DMB technology prevailed until the early 2004. But the broadcasting regulatory agency BLM in Bayern, Germany, keeping an eye of the technology on display at exhibitions, began to consider introducing the technology during the 2006 German World Cup finals. The German institution requested ETRI to demonstrate the technology. Even though the introduction of the technology has yet to be finalized, chances are high that the Korean-made terrestrial DMB technology could make its debut there.
Korea will have to continuously concentrate on expanding the export base of the technology and take into account the following points in doing so.
First, government agencies, including the Ministry of Information and Communication, are urged to aggressively publicize the technology in place of each corporation. Broadcasting is closely related to the government's policies, and to this end, relevant organizations from industry, research institute and broadcasting sectors should establish a cooperative system among them. Through such a joint efforts, Korea will demonstrate its capabilities to provide total solutions about the territorial DMB technology in a bid to enhance its credibility.
Secondly, it is essential for Korea to devise strategies regarding the characteristics of each region and country. In Germany and China, where large-sizes sports extravaganzas are held, Korea's activities to publicize the DMB technology, capitalizing on the sports events, would be enormous. Such publicity activities in countries with local large-sized markets and the potential of influencing other nations would bring secondary spillover effects. Korea's strategy to target areas with the potential of introducing the technology and build up successful business models would be one of the efficient ways for Korea to make a foray into foreign markets.
Thirdly, Korea will have to make preparations for China's technology chase. A terrestrial DMB service, based on Eureka-147, has been launched in Foshan, Gwangdong Prefecture, China. China is presumed to have already secured operational expertise and a relevant technological base to some extent, but Korea will capitalize on its own excellent competitive edge in the mobile terminal sector. If Korea continues to develop data broadcasting solutions that offer a variety of services including transportation information and location base service (LBS), they would be welcome in China.
Lastly, the foremost thing Korea now has to do in order to explore foreign markets depends on the launch of the territorial DMB service in Korea at the earliest possible date and a success in facilitating market entry. nw