Wesley's Tool-Box

On December 10, 1981, South Korea's Ministry of Communications (체신부) separated the telecommunication sector from itself to form a public corporation called Korea Telecom (한국전기통신공사; currently KT Corporation) in order to modernize telecommunication service. And then, this company created a subsidiary called Korea Mobile Telecommunications Services Corporation (KMTSC; 한국이동통신서비스(주); currently SK Telecom) on March 29, 1984, to manage mobile telecommunication sector. In May of the same year, it started the "car phone" service based on the analog AMPS (1G) cellular phone technology around the Seoul metropolitan area. This marked the beginning of the mobile phone service in Korea.

The frequencies used at the time was 824 - 849MHz uplink and 869 - 894MHz downlink, which was 25MHz bandwidth each way. This is outlined in the Ministry of Communications Notice No.43 (May 9, 1991). KMTSC changed its name to Korea Mobile Telecommunications Corporation (KMTC; 한국이동통신(주)) as it was selected as a public common carrier on April 30, 1988. Nationwide AMPS network was set up by the end of 1991.

In 1994, a big restructuring effort was put into the telecommunications sector. In January, Sunkyong Group (선경그룹; currently SK Group) took over KMTC and privatized it by purchasing 24% of its stocks. Shinsegi Telecom Inc.(신세기통신(주); STI), which was selected to be the 2nd mobile carrier in Korea and had POSCO as its largest shareholder, was founded on May 2. This established the competitive market for mobile phone services.

Interestingly, Sunkyong Group was originally selected as the 2nd mobile carrier in 1992, but its CEO an in-law to the then-president Roh Tae-woo, sparking preferential treatment controversy. It relinquished the rights on August 27 of that year. It ended up entering the telecommunications market by buying up the 1st mobile carrier instead. KMTC changed its name to SK Telecom on March 1997 is called by that name to this day.

[Frequency Allotment 1984 - 1995]

AMPS (1G)
KMTC: Uplink 824 - 849MHz / Downlink 869 - 894MHz

"스마트폰 공짜통화 편법 판친다"
"KT 탈옥폰, 아이폰 음성 통화 막는다"

위의 제목으로 미디어다음에 뜬 기사에 댓글이 폭발적이죠. 미디어다음에서 리플 수 많은 기사는 주로...

- MB 관련 소식
- 기자가 이상한 소리를 적거나 전달한 것

아... 둘 다 이상한 소리이긴 하겠군요. 아무튼. 이번 기사도 후자에 속합니다.

VoIP통화, 즉 쉬운 말로 '인터넷 전화'를 3G망, 즉 휴대폰 데이터통신망에서 하는 것이 불법이다, 차단하겠다는 요지의 기사들입니다.

트위터에서 이미 적어놨지만, 통신사에서 3G망의 VoIP 통화를 편법이나 불법으로 간주하는 데 있어서 기본적으로 2가지를 제시합니다.

1. 3G망 사용량 폭증에 대한 우려
2. '음성통화 수익' 악화에 대한 불쾌감

그에 따라, SKT는 이미 스카이프를 차단하고 있고, 얼씨구나 KT도 차단하러 들어가겠다고 엄포 놓았습니다.

근데 둘 다 말이 안됩니다.

Everyone's talking about the much-rumoured, and now much-talked-about Apple tablet, the iPad. Let me have my take on the device, relating to how it'll play out in Korea.

1. The 3G-enabled version will cost you $30/month on AT&T's network

The deal includes free use of AT&T's WiFi hotspots as well. This means it could be used practically anywhere with persistent internet connection. Plus, the device is unlocked out of the box, and the deal does not need a contract. KT, which introduced iPhone to its cellphone network in Korea, should follow this model, and match or best the pricing, although the price range for unlimited data is strikingly similar to what KT already offers for its Wibro modems. Which leads to my next point...


2. Apple plans to roll out the 3G-enabled model internationally around or after June

KT had been rumoured to be in talks with Apple to bring out a new Apple device by June, and everyone speculated that it'd be iPhone 4G. Well, looking at this iPad's planned timeline, it seems that the device in question was really iPad, not iPhone. Talks about iPhone 4G should be taken over by how KT should roll out 3G-enabled iPad in Korea, namely what sort of data plan it should introduce.


3. Pricing and app compatibility shows that it's targeting the netbook market

The base model with WiFi and 16GB storage is tagged at $499, which is about how much a mid-range netbook runs for these days. Meanwhile, iPad chose to be compatible with iPod instead of Mac. Mac's presence in PC market is insignificant, but iPod/iPhone platform is the biggest player in PDA/smartphone application market, so it seems logical that Apple wanted to ride on that wave.

Netbooks rely on PC (mostly desktop Windows) apps, but because of the poor performance, they are mostly relegated to casual web browsing. But iPad will absorb the responsive and lightweight apps developed for iPod/iPhone, so the choice to forgo desktop apps will pay off well. If iPad was a tablet version of Macbook, they could never have made the price point, nor the battery life (iPad will run for 10 hours on single charge), making the device an odd man out, much like how the previous tablet PC attempts turned out to be.

Another thing I'm expecting iPad to be huge in Korea is this - with the introduction of iPhone, a flurry of internet banking, day trading, and online shopping apps are soon to come out for the platform. Due to the special nature of the 'Korean internet', those things have not been possible for the most part on Macs, and the platform was largely neglected. But iPad will ride on the back of the iPhone, realizing the dreams Korean Mac owners had for years.


4. iPad is touting a new form factor in portable game console market

This one is a bit ambiguous. iPhone has lots of games that make the platform a good competitor to Nintendo DS or Sony PSP. iPad can make use of those games, as well as new games targeted specifically for itself. But to play a game holding a tablet the size of an A5 sheet? I'm not completely sold on the idea yet. I hope the game developers will come up with some innovative ideas.


There you have it. Looks like I'll be getting one in half a year, after I sell my notebooks.

Well, a Korean software company called TmaxSoft is announcing their latest product, Tmax Window today at Grand Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Seoul. For some bizarre reason, this version 1.0 software starts off at version 9. That's hardly the most bizarre part of it all. The company is claiming full compatibility with existing Microsoft Windows operating system, and is even offering their own office and web browser, each supposedly fully compatible with Microsoft Office Internet Explorer, along with it.

I wonder how much of this is true? We'll find out soon enough.

Spam senders have gotten creative every passing day. Nowadays, blocks of seemingly coherent, but machine-generated sentences often appear in the spams. Some of them seem to be taken out of passages from dirty novels, resulting in some sort of spam porns, or 'spampr0n' as I call it. Some may call it spamporn or spampron. Snippets from recent correspondence regarding the issue:

Ash Darqfyre:
Yes men problems crappy lecherous politician while looks?
Izrur:
|-)
Wesley:
whaa?
Wesley:
you've been reading spampr0ns again?
Ash Darqfyre:
hahah indeed i have
Ash Darqfyre:
Shape swirling around pole floor just appeal.
Ash Darqfyre:
these are masterpieces of the literate world
Wesley:
we live in 21st century and we get free spampr0ns in mailboxes
Izrur:
sounds like a jav titles
Wesley:
unimaginable for those 19th century sci-fi writers
Ash Darqfyre:
imagine, 100 years from now, these works will be hailed as the 21st century works of art
Ash Darqfyre:
now, i need to find a way to make haiku spampr0ns
Wesley:
lol