In the UK we are all pulling our hair out at the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who fail to provide us with what we're paying for, let alone making it arrive at high-speeds. On the other side of the world, however, it’s a completely different kettle of fish and the rules for internet connection and its speeds over there don’t stop at the office and the home but apply to new equipment and services for use on mobile phones.
High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is a third generation (3G) system that is fitted into a few current mobile phone handsets (such as LG and Samsung) and allows for internet speeds of up to 7.2 Mbits/s for downloading, which is at least twice as quick as previous mobile phone systems. It also provides up to 30G of data a month. The average ISP in the UK offers their broadband customers speeds of around 2 or 4 Mbits/s for use at home (though most people seldom actually get this speed) but with HSDPA this will soon seem ridiculous. The system is currently causing a storm across Asia and particularly in South Korea, where people are benefiting from these high-speeds wherever they are.
Such advances are not a new thing in Korea and nearby Japan either. For some time now over 14% of all mobile phone handsets in Korea have Digital Mobile Broadcast television and over half of all phones have high-pixel quality cameras.
Furthermore, South Korea’s capital Seoul is already planning to be the first city in the world to fully cover the area with a wireless broadband accessibility (known as Wibro), not simply for use with laptops but also with mobile phones. It is argued in reply that the city’s very dense population makes communication easier. However, mobile phones with 10 megapixel cameras, 8 GB hard drives, 100 MB stream of data at 60kph and now this high-speed HSDPA broadband are all examples of just why this region is so far ahead in this field.
As Executive Vice President of Global Marketing Operations at Samsung Electronics, Eric Kim, said “The vision of a broadband society is already here in Korea. We are two or three years ahead in wireless broadband and people are using it too”.
The HSDPA high-speed service will no doubt reach Europe eventually but, by the time it does, might Korea already be enjoying the stuff of our science-fiction films by then?
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