Four consortia picked for second phase BcN project

May 8, 2006 - The government yesterday picked four consortia, led by Dacom Corp., SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and cable operator C&M Co., to take up trial operations of the second-stage network project for converged telecom and broadcast services.
The Ministry of Information and Communication announced the results of its review that four groups scored over 70 points out of 100, in their bid for the second-phase broadband convergence network trial project, which is planned to start later this year.

The broadband convergence network is designed to deliver internet access at speeds of 50Mbps to 100Mbps, about 50 times faster than current conventional services, with nationwide coverage. The first-phase trial project was carried out in 2004-2005.

Cable operators for the first time joined licensed BcN consortia, thus eligible for the government's support.

Telecom operators, broadcasters, equipment manufacturers, solution/content providers will jointly participate in the two-year-long trial project.

"Interoperability has utmost importance in the second-phase BcN project. We will promote technology standardization among different operators and system makers," said Woo Young-gyu at the ministry's infotech infrastructure team.

"We will encourage four consortia to develop high-quality BcN services," said Ahn Geun-young, the ministry's infotech infrastructure team director.

The government has allocated 15.6 billion won in investment for the BcN through next year. A total of 72.4 billion won will be channeled from private sectors by next year.

BcN is expected to generate 67 trillion won in equipment sales and 53 trillion won in related investment by 2010, according to the ministry's estimates.

The trial operations will focus on getting the technically-ready internet protocol television off the ground, developing voice-over-internet protocol, interactive data broadcasting, and "ubiquitous" solutions such as "u-work," "u-learning" and "u-zone."

Dacom, an internet arm of LG Group, will join wireless operator LG Telecom Ltd., equipment maker Acromate Inc., solution maker CDNetworks Co., and content providers including Dacom Multimedia Internet Corp. in the Gwanggaeto consortium. The group will focus on high-quality conference call, VoIP service, high-definition WiFi video call, CDMA-WiFi allied service, and television-based electronic commerce, banking, and high-definition video-on-demand service.

Korea's No.1 wireless carrier SK Telecom will join broadband operator Hanarotelecom Inc., equipment maker Samsung Electronics Co., solution maker SK Networks Co., content provider SK C&C Co., and broadcaster MBN in the UbiNet consortium. The group will focus on developing softphone, a combined service of portable internet WiBro and fixed-line video telephony, and a service mixing EVDO and fixed-line video telephony.

The Octave consortium, minted by fixed-line market leader KT Corp., the country's second-largest wireless carrier KTF Co., broadcaster WowNet, terminal/solution makers and content providers will invest a total of 21.47 billion won in their trial project. The group will focus on developing technologies for video calls, television-based interactive service and ubiquitous service.

The Cable BcN consortium is led by regional operators including T-Broad and CJ CableNet, and solution/equipment makers including LG Electronics Ltd. The group will invest 4.79 billion won to develop high-definition video-on-demand, high-definition personal video recorder, interactive data broadcasting, TV-VoIP combined solutions.

The trial services start later this year, covering 2,900 households in Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, Busan, Gwangju, Daejeon, Daegu, Chungcheong Province and Jeju Province.

(siyoungh@heraldm.com)
By Hwang Si-young