WiBro (''wireless broadband'') is a

wireless broadband Wireless broadband is telecommunications technology that provides high-speed wireless Internet access or computer networking access over a wide area. The term comprises both fixed and mobile broadband. The term broadband Originally the word ...

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

technology developed by the

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

n telecoms industry. WiBro is the South Korean service name for

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operat ...

802.16e (mobile

WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is a family of wireless broadband communication standards based on the IEEE 802.16 set of standards, which provide physical layer (PHY) and media access control (MAC) options. The WiMAX ...

) international standard. By the end of 2012, the Korean Communications Commission intends to increase WiBro broadband connection speeds to 10Mbit/s, around ten times the 2009 speed, which will complement their 1Gbit/s fibre-optic network. The WiBro networks were shut down at the end of 2018. WiBro adopts TDD for duplexing,

OFDMA Orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) is a multi-user version of the popular orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) digital modulation scheme. Multiple access is achieved in OFDMA by assigning subsets of subcarriers to ...

for multiple access and 8.75/10.00 MHz as a channel bandwidth. WiBro was devised to overcome the data rate limitation of mobile phones (for example

CDMA 1x CDMA2000 (also known as C2K or IMT Multi‑Carrier (IMT‑MC)) is a family of 3G mobile technology standards for sending voice, data, and signaling data between mobile phones and cell sites. It is developed by 3GPP2 as a backwards-compatible s ...

) and to add mobility to broadband Internet access (for example

ADSL Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. ...

Wireless LAN A wireless LAN (WLAN) is a wireless computer network that links two or more devices using wireless communication to form a local area network (LAN) within a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, campus, or office buildi ...

). In February 2002, the Korean government allocated 100 MHz of

electromagnetic spectrum The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of frequencies (the spectrum) of electromagnetic radiation and their respective wavelengths and photon energies. The electromagnetic spectrum covers electromagnetic waves with frequencies ranging fro ...

in the 2.3–2.4 GHz band, and in late 2004 WiBro Phase 1 was standardized by the TTA of Korea and in late 2005 ITU reflected WiBro as

802.16e (mobile

). Two South Korean telecom companies ( KT, SKT) launched commercial service in June 2006, and the monthly fees were around US$30. WiBro base stations offer an aggregate data throughput of 30 to 50 Mbit/s per carrier and cover a radius of 1–5 km allowing for the use of portable internet usage. In detail, it provides mobility for moving devices up to 120 km/h (74.5 mi/h) compared to Wireless LAN having mobility up to walking speed and mobile phone technologies having mobility up to 250 km/h. From testing during the

APEC The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC ) is an inter-governmental forum for 21 member economies in the Pacific Rim that promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Summit in

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, ...

in late 2005, the actual range and bandwidth were quite a bit lower than these numbers. The technology will also offer

quality of service Quality of service (QoS) is the description or measurement of the overall performance of a service, such as a telephony or computer network, or a cloud computing service, particularly the performance seen by the users of the network. To quantitat ...

. The inclusion of QoS allows for WiBro to stream video content and other loss-sensitive data in a reliable manner. These all appear to be (and may be) the stronger advantages over the fixed

standard (802.16a). Some Telcos in many countries were trying to commercialize this Mobile WiMAX (or WiBro). For example, TI (Italy),

TVA The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a Federal government of the United States, federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, an ...

(Brazil), Omnivision (Venezuela), PORTUS (Croatia), and Arialink (Michigan) provided commercial service at some stage. While WiBro is quite precise in its requirements from spectrum use to equipment design, WiMAX leaves much of this up to the equipment provider while providing enough detail to ensure interoperability between designs. WiBro has a Peak Download speed of 128 Mbit/s and a Peak Upload speed of 56 Mbit/s.

Current service

In Korea, KT (

Korea Telecom KT Corporation ( Hangul: 주식회사 케이티), formerly Korea Telecom, is a South Korean telecommunications company. KT is the second-largest wireless carrier in South Korea, with 16.493 million subscribers as of Q4 2017. The formerly full ...

) offers Wave 2 (18.4 Mbit/s, 4 Mbit/s) for 10000 KRW/mo (around $11 or €6.50) with 10 GB data usage to 40000 KRW/mo with 50 GB data usage plus free access to their own

WiFi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wa ...

hotspots, ollehWiFi. The service coverage is advertised as nationwide, but actual coverage is restricted to every city, some railroad station, airports, and major highways.

SK Telecom SK Telecom Co., Ltd. ( or ) is a South Korean wireless telecommunications operator and former film distributor and is part of the SK Group, one of the country's largest chaebols. It leads the local market with 50.5 percent share as of 2008. ...

also offers Wave 2 WiBro Service for $18.87 a month with 30 GB data usage. Actual service coverage is limited mostly to major cities and highways. For short term visitors
KT
rents WiBro modem and bridge at KT Roaming Center in

Incheon International Airport Incheon International Airport (IIA; ) (sometimes referred to as Seoul–Incheon International Airport) is the largest airport in South Korea. It is the primary airport serving the Seoul Capital Area and one of the largest and busiest airports ...

. As of October 2012, WiBro-only USB modem costs 5,000 KRW per day plus 100,000 KRW deposit, WiBro-HSPA USB modem and WiBro Egg cost 8,000 KRW per day plus 150,000 KRW deposit. One-day rent is free at KT Roaming Center, and requires credit card and passport. In India, Tikona Digital Networks (Independent services provider) offers WiBro service for up to 2 Mbit/s and 4 Mbit/s in many cities. The 2 Mbit/s unlimited monthly plan costs Rs. 999.00 (roughly $21).

Coverage

As of January 2013, KT covers all 80+ cities while SK covers Seoul and a few other major cities in South Korea.

Wibro Manufactures

* HTC - HTC Evo 4G+ * INFOMARK - Compact Egg (Mobile router) * Interbro - Egg (A mobile Wibro to Wi-Fi hotspot device brand) * Intel - Wibro Netbook * LG Innotek - Egg, USB Type Modem * Modacom - Egg * Myungmin - USB Type Modem * Samsung - USB Type Modem, Wibro 3G phone (SCH-M830, Show Wibro Omnia) * Iphone4 - USIM

Network deployment

In November 2004,

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

and

Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (, sometimes shortened to SEC and stylized as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, South Korea. It is the pinnacle of the Samsung chaebol, a ...

executives agreed to ensure compatibility between WiBro and Mobile WiMAX technology.

KT Corporation KT Corporation (Hangul: 주식회사 케이티), formerly Korea Telecom, is a South Korean telecommunications company. KT is the second-largest wireless carrier in South Korea, with 16.493 million subscribers as of Q4 2017. The formerly fully ...

and Hanaro Telecom (acquired by

and renamed SK Broadband) had been selected as Wibro operators in January, 2005. However, Hanaro Telecom cancelled its plan for the WiBro and returned WiBro licence in April 2005. In September 2005,

signed a deal with

Sprint Nextel Corporation Sprint Corporation was an American telecommunications company. Before it merged with T-Mobile US on April 1, 2020, it was the fourth-largest mobile network operator in the United States, serving 54.3 million customers as of June 30, 2019. The co ...

to provide equipment for a WiBro trial. Two months later,

(aka

) showed off WiBro trial services during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (

APEC The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC ) is an inter-governmental forum for 21 member economies in the Pacific Rim that promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

) summit in Busan. On February 10, 2006,

Telecom Italia Gruppo TIM, legally TIM S.p.A. (formerly Telecom Italia S.p.A.), also known as the TIM Group in English, is an Italian telecommunications company with headquarters in Rome, Milan, and Naples, (with the Telecom Italia Tower) which provides fixed ...

, the dominant telephony and internet service provider in Italy, together with Korean Samsung Electronics, has demonstrated to the public a WiBro network service on the occasion of the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second ...

, held in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

, with downlink speed of 10 Mbit/s and uplink speed of some hundreds of kbit/s even in movement up to 120 km/h. In the same event Samsung tlc div. president Kitae Lee assured a future of 20–30 Mbit/s by the end of this year (2006) and >100 Mbit/s down/>1 Mbit/s up in 2008.

launched commercial WiBro service in June 2006. Sprint (US), BT (UK), KDDI (JP), and TVA (BR) have or are trialing WiBro.

and

launched WiBro around Seoul on June 30, 2006. On April 3, 2007, KT launched WiBro coverage for all areas of

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

including all subway lines. In January 2011, KT's mobile network SHOW and home network QOOK merged. Since then, KT has been changed to olleh. In March, 2011, olleh's WiBro coverage was expanded nationwide covering 85% of Koreans. As of October 2012, olleh's Wibro covers 88% of the South Korean population.

References

External links

WiBro Website (in English)Korea Telecom's WiBro site (in Korean)

PDF file: 2.3 GHz Portable Internet (WiBro) for Wireless Broadband AccessWiMAX: Opportunity or Hype? (a paper presented at the ITERA 2006 academic conference discussing WiBro and WiMAX)News report discussing WiBro technology

* ttps://archive.today/20050110092043/http://www.ibiztoday.com/eng/articleviewer.html?art_id=50032&lang=eng News report about the LG/Intel agreementbr>TTA (Telecommunications Technology Association) of KoreaSouth Korea Pushes Mobile Broadband
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wibro Broadband IEEE standards WiMAX Korean inventions 2002 establishments in South Korea 2006 establishments in South Korea 2018 disestablishments in South Korea Products introduced in 2006 Products and services discontinued in 2018