A newsletter from Senza Fili Consulting
October 2006

Last week in Seoul I had the opportunity to try WiBRO and it was quite impressive. I was able to use Skype from the 19th floor of the hotel, when the coverage that KT promised was up to the fourth floor. Within the coverage area, rates ranged from 500 kbps to 2 Mbps in the downlink, and 250 kbps to 500 kbps in the uplink (this is was based on very informal testing and comparing notes with other users). This is quite a good performance as many users like me kept the network busy trying out the service, so unlike in most demos this was an intensively used network. The network used the first generation WiBRO, which uses Mobile WiMAX (based on IEEE 802.16e-2005) in SISO mode. The introduction of MIMO in the second generation of WiBRO will significantly increase throughput and coverage.

Perhaps as impressive is KT's approach to WiBRO. During the WiBRO bus tour, we were shown some of the applications that accompany the service. In addition to Internet and email access, the most salient feature of the other applications supported is that they were mostly aimed at user-to-user communication, like blogging, messaging, and video-calls. These applications thrive on subscriber-generated content, much cheaper than that provided by the operators (and often much more compelling to subscribers), but require more uplink bandwidth than, say, Internet surfing. The major driver for adoption of mobile broadband in Korea - and possibly in other markets - appears to be old-fashioned user-to-user communication, or at least this is what KT appears to be betting on. The technology is new and the users have grown to be more sophisticated, but what they want to do - talk to each other - has not changed much. Over the cell phone, in Korea and in every other market, voice, SMS and email are by far the most popular applications. 

Note: While on the topic of WiBRO, it may be worth pointing out that WiBRO uses WiMAX technology, as there is still a good deal of confusion on the topic. More specifically, WiBRO is a Mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e-2005) certification profile that uses 8.75 MHz channel size and the 2.3 GHz band, developed for the Korean market (other countries use different channel sizes). There are multiple certification profiles for Mobile WiMAX to enable it to operate in different frequencies (e.g. 2.5-2.7 GHz in North America, many Latin American and Asia-Pacific countries; 3.5 GHz in Europe and many other markets). WiBRO is the first large-scale Mobile WiMAX network to be commercially deployed and this is being done ahead of certification of Mobile WiMAX products, expected to start in early 2007. As a result, the current WiBRO network in Korea uses non-certified pre-WiMAX equipment that follows the IEEE 802.16e-2005 amendment and that is expected to be submitted for certification, as soon as the certification labs will open.
 

"Wi-Fi Certified makes it Wi-Fi. An overview of the Wi-Fi Alliance approach to certification"

Since the first Wi-Fi Certified product was announced in 2000, certification has been a key driver for worldwide Wi‑Fi adoption, with its support for interoperability, backward compatibility and technological innovation.

Initially, access points and PC cards were the dominant Wi-Fi devices. In the last few years, new Wi-Fi devices have appeared: PDAs, fixed phones, cellular phones, printers, game consoles, TVs and other consumer electronics devices. The key challenge for Wi-Fi certification is to evolve to support the new functionality that these devices offer.

With over 3,000 certified products and an increasing number of certification programs, which cover basic connectivity, security, authentication, power save, quality of service, the Wi-Fi Alliance is now broadening the scope of certification to include new certification programs which include simplified setup of security-enabled home networks, radio performance, convergence with cellular, and high throughput.

You can download it here or from the Wi-Fi Alliance website.

3G World Congress and Mobility Marketplace,
Hong Kong, December 4-7, 2006