Samsung WiBro WiBro technology to lead global market with DMB following CDMA by Ki-Tae Lee President Telecommunication Network BusinessSamsung Electronics. Many new technologies debuted in 2005. But the area that attracted the greatest attention among IT professionals and high-level consumers was the breakthrough in Wireless Broadband (WiBro) and digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB). A next-generation information technology that will usher in the era of ubiquitous connectivity, WiBro is expected to spark a second Internet revolution that will have enormous impact on people's lives. Once commercial WiBro service is launched, users will be able to wirelessly access broadband Internet services while moving fast - say, in a car or a train. Excitement about WiBro is clear. For example, last November the national leaders visiting the IT Exhibition at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference in Busan were captivated by Korea's information technology, staying longer than originally scheduled. The assembled presidents and prime ministers handled some of the advanced products on display and received demonstrations of next-generation communications services. Their praise of Korean IT included the latest mobile phones from Samsung. "Excellent," was one of the many exclamations uttered by U.S. President George W. Bush while viewing the WiBro demonstration. The heads of state and international visitors also got a glimpse of family life in the future, watching demos of a WiBro household robot and a WiBro user accessing a movie via broadband Internet service while commuting to work by car. A demo about the workplace of the future showed a wireless multi-party videoconference. Samsung's technology and products are in the vanguard of the next Internet revolution. In 2005 alone, we supplied WiBro test systems in the United States, the UK, Japan, Brazil and Italy. Samsung's commercial WiBro service will be available through Venezuela's Omnivision cable network, enabling multimedia conferencing, VoIP calling, push and pull on demand services, and high-speed mobile Internet access. Nearly a dozen more service providers in other countries also have shown interest. Samsung recently worked with Telecom Italia to successfully demonstrate WiBro capabilities at the Torino 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Italy. Tourists and Olympics staff used the high-speed broadband service in several locations in and around the Olympic village, while a demonstration bus ran throughout Torino. Also, Samsung and Telecom Italia set up WiBro kiosks near Olympic venues to show this futuristic service to Olympic spectators. In South Korea, Samsung continues to work closely with Korea Telecom (KT) and SK Telecom to deploy WiBro in the first half of this year. KT has begun a trial service for 3,000 consumers in April and plans to use the Samsung M8000, the world's first PDA-type WiBro handset, as well as PCMCIA cards for laptops. Late last year, WiBro passed another milestone by becoming certified as a global standard. Going forward, Samsung Electronics will continue to develop pioneering IT drivers such as WiBro. In 2006, around the world, we will be leading the next wireless revolution.