South Korea has launched its long-awaited commercial mobile WiMax service

South Korea has launched its long-awaited commercial mobile WiMax service. Known as WiBro, the mobile broadband internet service originated from technology from broadband internet service carrier KT Corporation and SK Telecom. The companies launched WiBro based on Intel’s Wi-Max standard, at several highdemand areas in and around Seoul. They plan to expand coverage throughout Seoul and the surrounding cities by the end of this year, and nationwide by 2008. Separately, KT’s wireless unit KTF Corporation has launched commercial high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) wireless services in Seoul and 49 other cities. The move matches that of rival SK Telecom, which upgraded its WCDMA network with the so-called 3.5G technology.