WiBro on the Highway

Filed in archive WiMax/WiBro on February 22, 2006

According to the Korea Times, South Korea's KT announced today that it will start testing and demonstrating WiBro service on March 2 for its 200 employees, and will then open it to the public in April.

To focus on the fact that WiBro offers true wireless mobility, the first service area for the deployment will be a 16-kilometer section of the Kyongbu (Seoul-Pusan) Highway, from its starting point at Hannam Bridge in Seoul to Pangyo. A second deployment will cover a 25-kilometer section of subway from Sollung Station in Seoul to Ori Station in Pundang.

"We will invite 2,000 citizens for the pilot program beginning in April, and the official service will kick off in June," says KT spokesperson Koo Ja-ho. "It will be around the end of this year when the WiBro network covers the whole city."

WiBro is Korea's version of mobile WiMAX, enabling high speed Internet access even in fast-moving vehicles, including cars and trains moving at speeds of up to 120 kilometers per hour (75 miles per hour). According to KT, the WiBro network will provide download speeds of 4 Mbps.