Samsung Electronics  
Pursues Global Use of WiBro

Overseas deployment of home-grown technology will likely be accelerated

Now that the Mobile WiMax technology, based on Samsung Electronics'WiBro (wireless broadband Internet), has been approved as an international standard, WiBro has been well positioned as a core next-generation telecommunication technology.
The overseas deployment of WiBro, the source of the Mobile WiMax technology, will likely be accelerated as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has officially approved the Mobile WiMax technology, known as 802.16e, as an international standard on December 7.
Samsung Electronics'WiBro project will gain momentum as the Korean electronics giant declared the year 2006 as the first year of its efforts to globalize the technology.
Samsung Electronics has supplied WiBro equipment and handsets to KT for the world's first commercialization of the technology slated for April, and its overseas deployment of WiBro has picked up speed as the company provided equipment for trials to five countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Brazil and Italy.
The deployment of the WiBro technology is expected to widen to more than 10 more countries during this year.
A Samsung Electronics official said, "Global telecom operators"concern is expected to mount over the WiBro technology since the Mobile WiMax technology, based on WiBro, has become an international standard, and the year 2006 will be a watersheds in the overseas deployment of WiBro."Samsung Electronics demonstrated Wibro Hand-over technology at the 3rd Samsung 4G Forum held in Jeju in August 2005 for the first time in the world. Hand-over technology is essential to the true mobile connectivity of the WiBro service. The technology allows devices to be connected seamlessly to internet servers or other networked devices while commuting or moving. This is a significant breakthrough given that the hand-over technology is one of the most difficult and critical technologies to develop and commercialize.
Samsung Electronics showed off a seamless WiBro service while on the move in cars at a speed of more than 100 km per hour during the APEC 2005 Korea held last December in Busan. At that time, the telecom systems and mobile phone provider also unveiled mobile phones and WiBro handsets in the form of smart phones for the first time in the world, indicating an imminent commercialization of the WiBro technology.
Samsung said it will continue to demonstrate its leadership in the telecommunication industry with the unveiling of the world's first WiBro phones at the exhibition. As WiBro gets prepared to be fully implemented and utilized in the market this year, Samsung has displayed both the mobile phone-typed H1000 and the PDA-typed M8000.
In another global demonstration of the WiBro technology, an experimental mobile broadband service using WiBro will be made available during Torino Winter Olympic Games, to be held in February in Turin, Italy.
With WiBro, the homegrown technology, becoming an international standard, Korean companies are able to take a lead in global competition for acquiring patents. Lee Ki-tae, president of Samsung Electronics Telecommunication Network, has repeatedly stressed, "WiBro will be our weapon in the patent competition in the global telecommunication market, and Korea will repeat its IT success story though globalization of WiBro, dubbed as the Second Internet Revolution."WiBro is a high-speed mobile internet technology with excellent mobility - seamless access to the Internet regardless of any place and any time- at the fastest speed of transmitting data. The transmit speed of WiBro, emerging as a next-generation service ushering in a ubiquitous era, with the maximum download of 20Mbps and upload of 6Mbps are 1.4 times to 3 times faster than that of High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA). Commercialization of WiBro would allow users to download a 36-page newspaper copy at a speed of 0.7 seconds and MP3 players to download 10 tunes of music in 24 seconds.

Commercialization of WiBro in Korea
Korea's telecom operators - KT and SK Telecom - are gearing up for the commercialization of WiBro in the first half of the year. On the overseas front, Samsung Electronics has already signed a deal to deploy the WiBro service to Venezuela. Earlier, Samsung Electronics also inked agreements on the supply of WiBro equipment with KDDI of Japan, Sprint Nextel of the United States, TI of Italy and TVA of Brazil.
KT is putting the final touches to the pilot WiBro service in some areas, including Shinchon, Seoul, and Bundang, to be made from February through March. The Korean telecom operator, which has secured the technology to bring WiBro into practice use in a demonstration during the APEC, is expected to focus on the stabilization of the forthcoming service and the exploration of the so-called killer applications during the pilot program.
KT will pour a total of 1.2 trillion won into investments related to the expansion of the WiBro coverage and the early establishment of clientele base by 2011.
SK Telecom's WiBro service is to make its debut in the Seoul area in coming June.

Intellectual properties
Samsung Electronics is out to proactively obtain patents and capitalize on them. To this end, the electronics maker plans to augment intellectual property personnel from the current 320 to 450 in 3007.
Samsung Electronics plans to preempt the market through selection of its standard technologies in such areas as 3G W-CDMA and WiBro in anticipation of the launch of the 4G mobile telecommunication era slated for around 2010. Its objective is to beef up intellectual property management in the qualitative perspective by securing source technologies rather than pursing a quantitative growth as the global market is shifting into a knowledge-oriented one, and patents become weapons of corporate competitive edge together with design.
Samsung Electronics is focusing on scouting patent personnel, securing next-generation leading technologies and introduction of cross-licensing deals through the development of application technologies. The portion of such international patent experts as patent attorneys will be raised from the current 12 percent to 30 percent in 2007.
Samsung Electronics aims to raise the number of IT patents registered in the United States to more than 3,000 with the goal of taking up the No. 3 position by 2007. The company is to reduce the royalty amounts extended to advanced companies by inking cross-licensing deals through the development of application technologies and hold negotiations on royalties with latecomer companies.

WiBro market projection
Estimates by Korea Information Strategy Development Institute, a think tank , and KT show that the WiBro market is forecast to grow to subscribers ranging from 8 million to 10.7 million by 2011. If projects are implemented vigorously, the size of the market is projected to go beyond the estimates. KISDI estimates that revenues of the WiBro market are projected to amount to 120 billion won.
Commercialization of the Wibro technology is predicted to invigorate the mobile internet market, thus serving as a new opportunity to drive the saturated domestic telecommunication market that has shown signs of stagnation. It is also predicted to bring about a virtuous cycle of developing related industries - systems, handsets, parts and contents.
Unlike their commercialization of CDMA, Korean equipment makers, including Samsung Electronics, have successfully acquired a large number of intellectual properties by working to make their technologies international standards, allowing Korea to reduce royalties and depend less on foreign technologies.
According to estimates by Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), the global Wibro Market is projected to grow to $4.2 billion by 2010. Korean companies are expected to make a strong showing in the global market now that the home-grown WiBro technology has become an international standard. There is no reason to worry about the payments of royalties because the WiBro technology is based on data unlike sound-based CDMA. nw

Lee Ki-tae, president of Samsung Electronics Telecommunication Network

Samsung Electronics test-operates the system for offering the wireless internet service WiBro for the first time in the world at its lab in November 2004.

Samsung Electronics'latest WiBro handsets