Wesley's Tool-Box

On January 1, 1996, KMTC became the first company in the world to commercially operate the digital CDMA (2G) cellular service. Shinsegi Telecom(신세기통신; STI) followed up with its own CDMA service on April 1 of the same year. The allocated frequencies were the same as AMPS, and existing AMPS service would be gradually transitioned to CDMA, as per Ministry of Information and Communication (정보통신부; MIC) Notice No.1995-83(Jun. 15, 1995). AMPS network in Korea was shut down on December 31, 1999.

STI used the same 800MHz band that KMTC used for CDMA. This is because it was allocated a portion of the band originally used by KMTC: 835 - 845MHz uplink and 880 - 890MHz downlink for 10MHz each way. STI never offered AMPS and started its operation exclusively on CDMA.

Meanwhile, Korean government wanted a full-scale competitive telecommunication market, so it decided to introduce Personal Communications Service (PCS) based on the same CDMA technology used by cellular phones. Through MIC Notice No.1995-160(Oct. 30, 1995), the 1800MHz band (1750 - 1780MHz uplink, 1840 - 1870MHz downlink for 30MHz each) was allocated for this purpose.

As for the PCS carriers, three were selected on June 10, 1996: Korea Telecom Freetel (한국통신프리텔; KTF), Hansol PCS(한솔PCS), and LG Telecom (LG텔레콤; LGT; currently LG Uplus). KTF and Hansol PCS were ultimately absorbed by KT later. As per MIC Notice No.1997-27(Feb. 21, 1997), the band was divided into A, B, and C bands, 10MHz each, and allocated A to KTF, B to Hansol PCS, and C to LG Telecom. Commercial PCS networks went online on October 1, 1997.

The shape of the industry was kept more or less like this until the year 2000, when a sea of changes like the selection of IMT-2000 operators and various mergers transformed the landscape. As a side note, dialing codes for each carriers were 011 for SK Telecom(KMTC), 017 for Shinsegi Telecom, 016 for KTF, 018 for Hansol PCS, and 019 for LG Telecom.

[Frequency Allotment 1996 - 2000]

CDMA (2G) - Cellular
SKT #1: Uplink 824 - 835MHz (11MHz) / Downlink 869 - 880MHz (11MHz)
SKT #2: Uplink 845 - 849MHz (4MHz) / Downlink 890 - 894MHz (4MHz)
STI: Uplink 835 - 845MHz (10MHz) / Downlink 880 - 890MHz (10MHz)

CDMA (2G) - PCS
KTF: Uplink 1750 - 1760MHz (10MHz) / Downlink 1840 - 1850MHz (10MHz)
Hansol: Uplink 1760 - 1770MHz (10MHz) / Downlink 1850 - 1860MHz (10MHz)
LGT: Uplink 1770 - 1780MHz (10MHz) / Downlink 1860 - 1870MHz (10MHz)