Swerve 3D Applications to Japanese Wireless Marketplace

KOREA TIMES - Newly merged KTF will launch a commercial service of third-generation (3G) phones in June, moving a step closer to the full-scale mobile transmission of video data.

On Monday evening, KTF got conditional approval from the Ministry of Information and Communication, a Korean telecom regulator, to merge with KT ICOM, an unlisted 3G unit of KT.

Under the condition, the ministry requires KTF to offer a dual mode service by year-end. Dual mode would enable the service to operate either in a digital or analog mode.

The much-awaited approval paved the way for the company to offer a faster and higher quality video service than Japan's NTT DoCoMo, which launched the world's first 3G service last October, the company said.

``To this end, we will start a test-run of 3G phones in April,¡¯¡¯ said Lee Young-bae, a spokesman at KTF.

He added the merger could help KTF to reduce duplicate investment in mobile phone networks and to boost management efficiency.

The 3G mobile phone service facilitates rapid transmission of video images, enabling wireless video conferencing among other applications.

KTF¡¯s commercial service will begin in the Seoul metropolitan area and Pusan, the nation¡¯s second largest city.

Lee said the company aimed to raise its 3G customer base to 200,000 people by the end of this year. Introduction of a commercial 3G service, which is based on Europe-backed wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) technology had been penned-in due to malfunction of handsets and several other technical difficulties.

On trial KTF will distribute one type of mobile phones, manufactured by Samsung Electronics, Lee said.

In a separate move, the company had launched a commercial operation of CDMA2000 1X EV-DO (evolution data optimized) network, a rival technology standard against WCDMA.

Dubbed FIMM, or First in Mobile Multimedia, the EV-DO service theoretically delivers data up to 2.4 megabits per second at its peak rate with Internet-accessible phones,compared with NTT DoCoMo's maximum 384 kilobits per second. The company attracted some 200,000 customers for the new system.

As of the end of January, KTF had 10.5 million users of its mobile services, accounting for 33 percent of the Korean market.

KT is one of the three companies that were awarded with 3G licenses from the government for 1.3 trillion won in December 2000.

Author Korea Times

This Press Release Sponsored by AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES

TODAY'S PRESS RELEASES

Newly merged KTF will launch a commercial service of third-generation (3G) phones in June, moving a step closer to the full-scale mobile transmission of video data.

Disco and Wirebee will jointly promote Superscape's 3D Swerve enabling technology for mobile phones and PDAs to the Japanese marketplace. Swerve has been developed by Superscape specifically for wireless platforms, providing the ability to deliver a wide range of 3D applications including games and menuing systems. Japan is the largest and most innovative market in the world for games on mobile phones.

The first CDMA phone with integrated Bluetooth™ wireless technology available in the United States. This latest introduction also offers a look at the new Sony Ericsson industrial design that the company is using for its new mobile phones.

The T310 mobile phone offers great gameplay with its joystick and colour display, also taking advantage of its 32 polyphonic sounds and vibrating force feedback to bring as much as possible of the game console feeling to the mobile environment.

PacketVideo Corporation announced that it has provided the multimedia functionality embedded in the Sony Ericsson P800 smartphone, based on Symbian OST (operating system).

T-Mobile and 3G LAB tannounced the first Europe-wide implementation of Trigenix mobile interface technology. T-Mobile will be using 3G LAB's award-winning Trigenix technology to give its customers access to dedicated t-zones content channels through branded and customised interfaces on mobile phones.

Racal Instruments has devised a set of wall-charts summarising the UMTS layer 1 technical standards as a reference guide for all engineers working on Layer 1 (and higher layers) in mobile communications design and test.