South Korea: Mobile broadcasting satellite launch delay

Text of report by South Korean news agency Yonhap

SK Telecom Corporation, the largest of South Korea’s three cell phone operators, said on Thursday [11 March] the launch of a satellite for mobile broadcasting services will be delayed for one day in order to complete safety checks and last-minute preparations.

The MBSat satellite had been originally scheduled to thunder off into space Friday afternoon Seoul time, but last-minute preparations require its takeoff be delayed until Saturday afternoon.

No problems were detected during pre-launch testing by the manufacturers of the rocket and satellite, and a launch delay was not uncommon, SK Telecom officials said.

The 1,760 kg SS [Space Systems]/Loral-built satellite, jointly owned by SK Telecom and Japan-based Mobile Broadcasting Corporation in which electronics giant Toshiba Corporation owns the largest stake, will be carried by an Atlas rocket.

The 366.5bn won (313m dollars) satellite, which will operate from a geostationary orbit 35,785.6 kilometres above the equator, has an expected lifespan of 12 years, SK Telecom said.

SK Telecom contributed 94.5bn won, or 34.66 per cent of the costs, to the development of the satellite, while the remaining was funded by Mobile Broadcasting.

The satellite, the first of its kind in the world, is designed to act as the backbone for digital television broadcasting to handheld devices. It will be used to relay TV programming between relay stations on land and mobile phones or televisions installed in automobiles.

SK Telecom, which controls more than 54 per cent of South Korea’s 34 million-strong cell phone service market, plans to offer via the satellite crystal-clear digital broadcasting channels to its customers through the handheld devices such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants.

To that end, SK Telecom created a new business entity called TU Media Corporation with 200-odd partners including terrestrial broadcasters, automakers, telecom equipment manufacturers and content providers.

Samsung Electronics Corporation, the world’s third-largest handset maker, is planning to introduce cell phones with television functions for the satellite-based mobile broadcasting service.

SK Telecom said cell phone subscribers can receive the TV signals from the satellite through embedded aerials because a new technology enables the transmission of signals to be much stronger than that what is currently available.

The Seoul-based wireless giant plans to begin commercial operations of its mobile broadcasting service by the end of July.

SK Telecom holds a 13.6 per cent stake in Mobile Broadcasting, giving it the second largest interest after Toshiba’s 39 per cent holding. The next biggest stockholder is Toyota Motor Corp, also of Japan, with a 5.7 per cent stake.