4G Forum Offers Glimpse of New Telecom Tech By Kim Tae-gyu Staff Reporter http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/tech/200408/kt2004082218284011810.htm The second Fourth-Generation (4G) Forum will start Monday in Cheju Island to take a look into the crystal ball of the next-generation world of telecom. The annual 4G Forum started last year under the leadership of Samsung Electronics as a beginning step toward nurturing 4G standards. Samsung said Sunday a total of 120 guests from 18 nations will participate in the two-day session and share visions on 4G technologies under the theme of ``Migration Paths Toward 4G Networks.'' Participants include high-profile telecom experts from global standardization bodies such as the International Telecom Union and the Wireless World Research Forum. From related industries, 14 cell phone makers such as Samsung, Nokia, Motorola and Siemens will join the forum while 27 service providers like NTT DoCoMo, Vodafone and KDDI will also attend. The 4G mobile system, which is forecast to arrive on the market before 2010, has yet to be defined but is generally regarded as a network that will operate on wireless Internet technology running at speeds faster than 100 Mbps (megabits per second). Currently, tried-and-tested 3G technologies of CDMA 2000 1x EV-DO (evolution data optimized) cannot maintain a 1Mbps speed on average and the looming alternative of W-CDMA (wideband CDMA) promises an average throughput of around 1~2 Mbps. When 4G technology finally goes to market, folks will be able to enjoy location-based services, mobile shopping, e-mail and multimedia data transfer as well as video streaming at reasonable prices. ``With brisk research and development under way for next-generation technologies, now is a high time to establish a vision of 4G and begin working toward materializing it via standardization,'' said Lee Ki-tae, who is in charge of Samsung's cell phone business. During the forum he hopes participants will put forward a wide array of creative ideas regarding 4G technologies. voc200@koreatimes.co.kr 08-22-2004 18:30 |