More WiBro Export Success--an Auspicious Start

With the news that Samsung Electronics has signed deals to export Korea's WiBro technology to Taiwan and Kuwait, it is beginning to appear that this technology will be another big export success story. As reported in the Digital Chosun Ilbo Samsung Electronics is now involved in commercial or pilot projects with 23 firms in 19 countries, including the United States, Japan, Russia, Lithuania, Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Venezuela.>
U.S. technology market researcher ABI Research forecast that the WiBro market will grow from US$3.5 billion in 2008 to $59.6 billion in 2012, with the number of subscribers increasing from 12 million to 280 million.
I had a chance to personally test WiBRO at a recent conference in Seoul dealing with Ultra Broadband issues.  Korea Telecom put all of the conference participants on a bus and we each had a notebook computer equipped with a very compact WiBro modem.  I enjoyed the demonstration and had no trouble viewing video on CNN while the bus was cruising along the Han River at more than 100 kilometers per hour.  The "law of mobility"  or "McGuire's" law states that the value of a product increases with mobility.  A simple measure of mobility is the percent of time the product is available for your use.
I predict great success for WiBRO in Korea and in markets around the world.   The reason is that it draws on the power of the law of mobility by making the internet itself more mobile!

Wireless Broadband Boosts the Economy

A new report by Ovum for CTIA, the Wireless Association concludes that "wireless broadband, is having a massive impact on the productivity of the entire U.S. economy, and in particular is having a significant impact in five key states. Further, we find that small businesses and the health care sector in particular are realizing significant benefits from the implementation and use of wireless broadband." (Click on the graphic at the upper-left to view a full-size image.) Why mention this in a blog about Korea's telecommunications sector? The main reason is that Korea has a potentially huge stake in the buildout of wireless networks around the world by virtue of its WiBro, or mobile Wimax technology. Samsung and Sprint are building Wimax networks along the east coast of the U.S., including New York and Washington D.C. Another reason is that the economic impact of wireless broadband technology in the United States economy is likely to be similar to its impact in other advanced economies, such as South Korea.