Who will win out in the battle of fast wireless internet service?
Web 2.0 | 2007/02/22 16:26 | Web 2.0 Asia
The word "convergence" means there will be a battle between the two worlds over the wireless broadband internet market : That is, between the fixed internet service providers (e.g. Comcast) and the wireless carriers (e.g. Vodafone). And this battle is taking place right here in Korea.
It's an open secret that Wibro, despite all the hypes, is struggling. It's only had a few thousand subscribers so far. The biggest problems have been insufficient coverage and devices. HSDPA seems to be having a more successful rollout. The "T-login" service from SK Telecom seems to be doing all right.
Here is the summary of the price plans of Wibro and HSDPA (I've done the Excel job with the original data from K-mobile news). As shown here, Wibro has advantage in terms of additional packet fees. HSDPA, with the "D" in its name meaning "download", doesn't offer a very fast upload speed; But this problem will be addressed with the upcoming (July this year) HSUPA service.
As mentioned, the "Wibro vs. HSDPA, Round 1" has been won by HSDPA, in the Korean market. But Wibro is putting itself together for a comeback. Wibro is now trying to attack the enemy's weak spot, namely the not-so-fast upload speed. As part of that effort, Wibro is striking deals with UGC (user-generated content) partners, hoping users will upload their rich media content from mobile devices over Wibro. But I think Wibro has a bigger fish to fry than signing deals with content partners: It's gotta get a lot more subscribers than just a few thousdands!
It's an open secret that Wibro, despite all the hypes, is struggling. It's only had a few thousand subscribers so far. The biggest problems have been insufficient coverage and devices. HSDPA seems to be having a more successful rollout. The "T-login" service from SK Telecom seems to be doing all right.
Here is the summary of the price plans of Wibro and HSDPA (I've done the Excel job with the original data from K-mobile news). As shown here, Wibro has advantage in terms of additional packet fees. HSDPA, with the "D" in its name meaning "download", doesn't offer a very fast upload speed; But this problem will be addressed with the upcoming (July this year) HSUPA service.
As mentioned, the "Wibro vs. HSDPA, Round 1" has been won by HSDPA, in the Korean market. But Wibro is putting itself together for a comeback. Wibro is now trying to attack the enemy's weak spot, namely the not-so-fast upload speed. As part of that effort, Wibro is striking deals with UGC (user-generated content) partners, hoping users will upload their rich media content from mobile devices over Wibro. But I think Wibro has a bigger fish to fry than signing deals with content partners: It's gotta get a lot more subscribers than just a few thousdands!
