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Korea Times / 08-09-2004
By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter




▶Asia's IT Show opens : President Roh Moo-hyun, aided by big screen technology, addresses participants of ITU Telecom Asia 2004, at its opening at the BEXCO in Pusan, Monday.



Pusan - Korea's top-name businessmen define the future of the world of telecom as a place where people can remain connected to high-speed Internet anytime, anywhere.

Delivering key-note speeches at a forum of the ITU Telecom Asia 2004 here, KT president Lee Yong-kyung and SK Telecom boss Kim Shin-bae voiced their commitment toward the much-talked jargon called ``ubiquitous.''

``People will be able to experience information-oriented changes more drastically in the world of ubiquitous which will appear in our future society,'' KT's Lee said.

The key to our entry into the future of ubiquitous telecommunications lie in the integration of fixed-wireless networks as well as the convergence of telecom and broadcasting services, he added.

En route to a fully developed ubiquitous society, Lee pointed out that broadband convergence network (BcN) would play a pivotal role.

The BcN will integrate telecom, broadband and broadcasting lines into a single network, thus promising a peak speed of 100Mbps by 2010, about 50 times faster than now.

SK Telecom's Kim also stressed the convergence trend will become a powerful engine driving the economy.

``The ubiquitous telecommunications trend is expected to increase the size of the entire communications market by networking every object existing in the real world to allow for development of new service items,'' Kim said.

The recently-installed head of the nation's top wireless operator, however, cautioned mobile carriers about being overly optimistic of the new mega trend.

``But ubiquitous telecommunications may not be quite the rosy picture we expect it to be because various technologies are emerging which may not need intervention by telecom carriers,'' Kim said.

Plus, Kim expected the total number of Asian mobile subscribers, which topped a 1 billion mark this year, to double to 2 billion clients by 2010.



voc200@koreatimes.co.kr