The Role of WiBro as Next-Generation Growth Engine By Yim Chu-hwan, President, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) WiBro, or Wireless Broadband, makes it possible for the Internet to be accessed and enjoyed at anytime and anywhere. This revolutionary new technology carries greater significance than just the emergence of yet another new service in the telecom market of Korea, which is in a period of relative stagnation. Since the basis of high growth for the domestic wired and wireless telecom market collapsed due to market saturation, the market had not seen any clear sign of growth momentum. However, there are high expectations that WiBro, which has been developed with purely Korean technology, will play not only the role of a new growth engine for the domestic telecom market, which has sunk into a swamp of low growth, but also the role of next-generation growth power with a high possibility of dominating the world's portable Internet market. It is expected that the WiBro service will have the effects of inducing production worth about 25 trillion won (approx. US$25 bil.), creating added value worth about 13 trillion won (approx. US$13 bil.), and creating new employment for about 130,000 people by the year 2011. Hence, the ripple effects on the national economy, too, are not small. Also, because of the special characteristic of its service positioned in the middle domain between the mobile telephone and wireless LAN, it is anticipated that WiBro will accelerate the convergence evolution of the Korean telecom market, which is represented by the fusions of the wired and the wireless and of telecom and broadcasting. WiBro businessmen are already preparing plans for providing fusion services by joining mobile telecom, digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB), home networking, telematics, and others to WiBro according to market demand. It appears that fusion with other industries - such as mobile telecom, broadcasting, electric home appliances, and transportation - will be promoted. It is expected that WiBro will play the role of a temporary bridge that connects the present wired and wireless services to the fourth generation multimedia telecom service and make ubiquitous networking a reality. Once the WiBro service begins in earnest, subscribers can enjoy not only video telephone, financial transactions, MMS (Multimedia message service), e-mail, SMS (short message service), and others, but also high-speed data services, including movies, streaming, high-capacity VOD (Video on demand), file download, and others - which were enjoyed through the super-high speed Internet - at anytime and anywhere. Also, being true to its name, WiBro will become the leading actor that opens up the era of services that combine the wired and wireless since telematics services, with which real-time traffic information guidance can be obtained while moving, and broadcasting services, using multicast and broadcast technologies, too, can be used. Potential for global standardization of the WiBro technology The project of the international standardization of the WiBro technology has been jointly pursued by main telecom businesses, manufacturing firms, research organizations, and others. A considerable part has contributed to the standardization and has been adopted. Hence, there are high expectations regarding the entry of Korean WiBro-related enterprises into the world market. International standardization has been led, centered on the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA), including the pursuing of the standardization of WiBro since June last year, the reflection of this in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE), and others. Also, the forecasts for the development of the WiBro service in the future are very bright since it has been decided to consider the WiBro technology first when developing the international standard of the broadband wireless access (BWA), many elements based on WiBro have been adopted in discussions of the standardization of the fourth generation (4G) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and others of the like. With the commercialization of WiBro ahead, it appears that the acceleration of international standardization will be achieved through the project of the enhancement of WiBro in the year 2007. Hence, it is judged that a basis for continuously leading the international standardization will be secured early. As such, efforts have been made to pave the way for taking the leadership of the 4G technology by making the domestic WiBro technology a world standard through cooperation with overseas standardization groups who are proceeding with standardization in a similar way with the WiBro technological standard and by expanding the development of the industry of the home front and the opportunities for entering the overseas market. WiBro demo at APEC firmly planted the image of Korea's IT strength Meanwhile, the opportunity for the demonstration of WiBro at APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) in Busan in November last year became a chance for publicizing to the world the excellent technology and the possibilities for success of WiBro, which has been developed with purely Korean technology. The technology that received the most attention during the IT exhibition at APEC was the trial performance of the WiBro service. WiBro surprised the participants by having been independently developed domestically and showing excellent performance. For the demonstration of the WiBro service, a terminal in the form of a personal digital assistant (PDA), a terminal in the form of an ordinary mobile phone, and a form of a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) card that can be attached onto a notebook computer were introduced. Also, Internet searches as well as video telephony were successfully demonstrated during a trial service on a vehicle. The aspect of Korea's IT strengths, including WiBro, was confirmed yet again not only during the APEC summit but also during President Roh Moo-hyun's week-long tour of the Middle East that started May 7. This proved to be a good opportunity for Korea to inform the world of its IT strengths and firmly implant Korea's image as an advanced country in the IT world.