The CDMA Development Group (CDG) commended SK Telecom (SKT) on its $1 billion investment in China Unicom. SKT is South Korea’s largest wireless operator, and the investment demonstrates that CDMA2000® is a thriving technology in Korea and is expected to provide a return on investment in China.

SKT has purchased a 6.67% stake in China Unicom with approximately $1 billion in convertible bonds. The alliance with SK Telecom will fortify China Unicom’s CDMA2000 business by providing additional working capital for advanced mobile handsets, network enhancements, and value-added services. China Unicom is China’s second largest mobile operator, and claims 34% of the country’s 415 million-strong subscriber base.

“SKT’s investment in China Unicom marks SKT’s tremendous success and confidence in rolling out advanced CDMA2000 voice, broadband data and multimedia services in markets outside of Korea,” said Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDG. “It also highlights CDMA2000’s proliferation across the world’s most lucrative long-term potential markets.” The powerful combination of Korea’s вЂ?know-how’ and China’s enormous market potential will further contribute to the rapid migration from 2G to 3G mobile communications.

SKT can be considered one of the most successful operators in the world, through its substantial earnings in Korea coming from around 20 million subscribers who are generating an average revenue per user (ARPU) of $45.70 USD. Its execution in Korea, one of the most competitive markets, demonstrates the power of its leadership, market execution and technology selection. It’s entry in the Chinese telecommunication market, through an exclusive strategic alliance framework agreement with China Unicom, further shows SKT’s commitment towards significantly strengthening the presence of CDMA2000 in China and maximizing its earnings within the global marketplace.

According to Shin-bae Kim, the CEO of SK Telecom, “The combination of the world’s largest market and the world’s finest technology will set the standard for mobile communications worldwide. Our partnership with China Unicom marks a turning point for China’s CDMA business.”

South Korea broke into a wireless broadband frenzy Friday with the country’s top two operators launching a volley of services. Leading mobile operator SK Telecom and fixed line carrier KT both introduced wireless internet services over WiBro – Korea’s homebrew WiMAX technology – while mobile unit KTF fired up its HSDPA network.

As of today both KT and SKT will be offering WiBro connectivity in a number of ‘hot zones’ in Seoul. As a result of the limited coverage, KT is offering discounted tariffs until year-end. Both operators expect coverage in all of Seoul by year-end.

WiBro is a homegrown Korean technology that shares compatibility with mobile WiMAX 802.16e and has a theoretical maximum speed of 20Mbps when stationary. The technology can potentially deliver speeds of 1-3Mbps while on the move at up to 120km per hour.

KT is launching with a PC data card and tariffs starting at Won6,000 for 500MB of data per month, ranging up to Won16,000 for unlimited usage. All subscriptions carry a one off Won30,000 connection fee. WiBro enabled PDAs and notebooks are expected to be introduced during the second half.

SKT is launching with a PCMCIA data card and a WiBro Unlimited Usage Plan for Won30,000 per month.

At the same time, KT’s mobile unit, KTF, also launched its commercial HSDPA service in 50 cities, supported by 2 DBDM (Dual Band Dual Mode: 2100MHz WCDMA/HSDPA, 1800MHz cdma2000 1x EV-DO) handsets.

KTF’s HSDPA service provides coverage to 80 per cent of the population in Korea, and is expected to reach 91 per cent of the population by year-end.

The two handsets, the Samsung SPH-W2100 and LG-KH1000, are capable of downloading wireless data at a maximum speed of 1.8 Mbps in HSDPA mode and 2.4 Mbps in EV-DO mode. The SPH-W2100 also supports T-DMB mobile TV services.

KTF said it plans to release up to three additional HSDPA handset models by year-end.

SKT beat KTF to the punch in terms of HSDPA though, commercially launching its network last month in 25 major cities, including Seoul, Incheon, Busan, Daegu, Daejeon and Jeju. The company plans to quickly extend its network to cover to a total of 84 cities, providing full service across the country. SKT hopes to sign up a total of 300,000 subscribers by the end of 2006.

SKT kicked off its service with the Samsung W200 and expects LG’s SH-100 to be in stores by June and four to five other models to be added by year-end.

Mike Roberts, principal analyst at telecoms.com’s parent, Informa Telecoms and Media believes the plans will face tough challenges. “The launch of WiBro by SKT and KT will be the first mass-market rollouts of pre-Mobile WiMAX service, so are an important test of the potential for Mobile WiMAX services,” said Roberts. “However WiBro is also something of a special case because it is launching into an intensely competitive market that will feature HSDPA services from SKT, EV-DO Rev. A services from LG from 2007, and EV-DO services from several operators.”

The country’s smallest operator, LG Telecom is in the process of deploying a cdma2000 1x EV-DO Rev. A network, which is expected to go live next year. LG previously abandoned plans to deploy a faster EV-DV network when vendor interest in the technology began to wane around 18 months ago.

France Telecom and Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERICY), an industry leading vendor, enabling mass market adoption of 3G solutions worldwide, have entered into a patent license agreement under France Telecom’s Turbo Codes Licensing Program. Under terms of the agreement France Telecom has granted Ericsson a worldwide license to France Telecom’s seminal Turbo Codes patents for use in Ericsson’s third generation (3G) mobile communications products encompassing WCDMA to HSDPA.

Invented by Claude Berrou and Alain Glavieux of Ecole Nationale Surperieure des Telecommunications (ENST) in Brittany, France, Turbo Codes have been adopted by the leading third generation (3G) cellular standards, 3GPP (UMTS/W-CDMA) and 3GPP2 (CDMA2000), in order to provide previously unavailable error correction performance at commercially viable costs. According to industry analyst estimates 3G standards are expected to represent at least a third of all cellular users by 2009.

Turbo Codes are an innovative form of forward error correction (FEC), one of the fundamental building blocks of any type of digital communications with increases in network data capacity and power efficiencies close to the theoretical “Shannon limit.” These advantages combined with increasing bandwidth demands and the maturity of Turbo Codes technology have led to their adoption in a wide array of commercially available and successful communications standards including: cellular (UMTS, CDMA2000), satellite (DVB-RCS, CCSD), broadband wireless, and home powerline networking (HomePlugAV). The invention and inventors of Turbo Code have been widely recognized for this achievement with nominations and awards ranging from nominee for European Inventor of the Year 2006, to the award of the 2005 Marconi Prize, and recipients of the 1998 IEEE (Information Theory) Golden Jubilee Award.

“This agreement signifies our continuing progress with the Turbo Code Licensing Program and our efforts to provide this commercially successful and cost effective technology to 3G market leaders,” said Mustapha Tagredj, Patent Licensing Director for France Telecom. “As such, we are pleased to welcome Ericsson, a company shaping the future of mobile and broadband communications as the latest entrant to our Turbo Codes Licensing Program.”

France Telecom is committed to making the benefits of Turbo Codes available to customers implementing a variety of digital communication solutions as well as those customers implementing 3G compliant technology for which France Telecom’s patents are considered essential. In order to facilitate this process France Telecom established the Turbo Codes Licensing Program (TCLP) in late 2001.