WiBro to be out… Less than 500k member
Jung Yoon Hee | yuni@ | 2017-06-05 09:25:45
WiBro members are continuing to decline and WiBro is in fact in the process of exiting the market. Once, the number of subscribers had exceeded one million fell steadily to below 500,000. Mobile carriers are in fact abandoning WiBro business. At the time of re-allocation of WiBro frequencies in 2012, 3.4 million subscribers, the number KT and SK Telecom announced as their target for 2017.
Currently, WiBro is used as a subway WiFi backhaul network (system linking users and networks). However, LTE will be replaced for higher speed and better quality from this year onward. Meanwhile, the government is reviewing the implementation of the WiBro frequency reallocation for the fifth year this year, but it is not widely meaningful.
According to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Creation on June 4, the number of WiBro members reached 516 671 as of April. By operator, KT had 435,792 and SK Telecom with 74,479. it is estimated that 500,000 members left in May, considering that the number of members dropped by an average of 18,000 every month this year. Specifically, in January, there were 15,568 people, 16,934 people in February, and 20,471 people in March and 19,803 people in April have left WiBro. WiBro traffic also declined due to fewer members. As of April, WiBro data traffic is 2304 terabytes (TB), about one-120th of that of LTE, which recorded 276,093TB.
WiBro is the technology developed in Korea for the first time and commercialized in 2006. Although WiBro received the expectation that it would become the fourth generation (G) mobile communication standard, it was shrunk by the Long Term Evolution (LTE). In Korea, 104,978 subscribers in 2012 was the peak. Since then the members have been steadily declining since it has taken its peak every year.
In fact, WiBro`s `exit` from the market is confirmed. Currently, KT and SK Telecom are using WiBro in 2.3GHz band of 57MHz width until March 2019. The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning announced the K-ICT Spectrum Plan at the end of last year. And ministry revealed that it will secure a new 40 MHz frequency band in the 2.3GHz band. In other words, it will use WiBro frequency for other purposes after leaving WiBro frequency with minimum bandwidth for user protection.
In the past, WiBro has been used as a dongle-shaped personal data service device such as `Egg (KT)` and `Bridge (SK Telecom)`. However, its position was greatly dropped due to the evolution of the LTE network and unlimited data rates in LTE. Professor Hong In-ki, professor of electronic wave engineering department at Kyunghee University, mentioned, "Although, WiBro started as a portable Internet application, it is difficult to utilize it in other forms since WiBro system and technology itself are not new at present."
Meanwhile, Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning will start review plans to use KT and SK Telecom WiBro frequencies from the end of this month. It is because, the former Korea Communications Commission in 2012 reassigned WiBro frequencies to KT and SK Telecom for seven years. The inspection period is about three months until the end of September. At the time, the Korea Communications Commission received a plan to expand the WiBro service area by subway, highway, city bus, and metropolitan buses under the reallocation condition. In the third year (2015) and the fifth year (2017), the decision was made to check whether or not it was the third time. KT and SK Telecom decided to invest more than KRW 100 billion each by 2017. An official from the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning representative said, "We will inspect soon to check whether the companies are implementing the business plan properly. It is now difficult to disclose the specific number of investment situation.”
By Jung Yoon Hee yuni@
[ copyright ⓒ The Digitaltimes ]
Currently, WiBro is used as a subway WiFi backhaul network (system linking users and networks). However, LTE will be replaced for higher speed and better quality from this year onward. Meanwhile, the government is reviewing the implementation of the WiBro frequency reallocation for the fifth year this year, but it is not widely meaningful.
According to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Creation on June 4, the number of WiBro members reached 516 671 as of April. By operator, KT had 435,792 and SK Telecom with 74,479. it is estimated that 500,000 members left in May, considering that the number of members dropped by an average of 18,000 every month this year. Specifically, in January, there were 15,568 people, 16,934 people in February, and 20,471 people in March and 19,803 people in April have left WiBro. WiBro traffic also declined due to fewer members. As of April, WiBro data traffic is 2304 terabytes (TB), about one-120th of that of LTE, which recorded 276,093TB.
WiBro is the technology developed in Korea for the first time and commercialized in 2006. Although WiBro received the expectation that it would become the fourth generation (G) mobile communication standard, it was shrunk by the Long Term Evolution (LTE). In Korea, 104,978 subscribers in 2012 was the peak. Since then the members have been steadily declining since it has taken its peak every year.
In fact, WiBro`s `exit` from the market is confirmed. Currently, KT and SK Telecom are using WiBro in 2.3GHz band of 57MHz width until March 2019. The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning announced the K-ICT Spectrum Plan at the end of last year. And ministry revealed that it will secure a new 40 MHz frequency band in the 2.3GHz band. In other words, it will use WiBro frequency for other purposes after leaving WiBro frequency with minimum bandwidth for user protection.
In the past, WiBro has been used as a dongle-shaped personal data service device such as `Egg (KT)` and `Bridge (SK Telecom)`. However, its position was greatly dropped due to the evolution of the LTE network and unlimited data rates in LTE. Professor Hong In-ki, professor of electronic wave engineering department at Kyunghee University, mentioned, "Although, WiBro started as a portable Internet application, it is difficult to utilize it in other forms since WiBro system and technology itself are not new at present."
Meanwhile, Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning will start review plans to use KT and SK Telecom WiBro frequencies from the end of this month. It is because, the former Korea Communications Commission in 2012 reassigned WiBro frequencies to KT and SK Telecom for seven years. The inspection period is about three months until the end of September. At the time, the Korea Communications Commission received a plan to expand the WiBro service area by subway, highway, city bus, and metropolitan buses under the reallocation condition. In the third year (2015) and the fifth year (2017), the decision was made to check whether or not it was the third time. KT and SK Telecom decided to invest more than KRW 100 billion each by 2017. An official from the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning representative said, "We will inspect soon to check whether the companies are implementing the business plan properly. It is now difficult to disclose the specific number of investment situation.”
By Jung Yoon Hee yuni@