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South Korea: Satellite-to-mobile broadcasting system launched

Posted on: Monday, 15 March 2004, 06:00 CST

Text of report by South Korean news agency Yonhap

Cape Canaveral, Florida, 13 March: SK Telecom said its digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) satellite intended for the world's first satellite-based broadcasting service [direct to mobile phones and other handheld devices] was successfully launched from the John F Kennedy Space Centre in the US state of Florida on Friday [12 March], local time.

SK Telecom's DMB satellite, dubbed "Hanbyul" and codenamed MBSat, was launched aboard the Atlas III-A rocket towards a fixed orbit at an altitude of 35,785.6 kilometres and 15 minutes of east longitude at 2:41 p.m., company officials said.

The ultimate success of the launch will be confirmed in 12 days after the satellite safely enters the targeted orbit around 25 March, said the officials.

"The successful launch of the DMB satellite will signal the advent of the era of mobile satellite-based broadcasting in South Korea," Seo Young-gil, senior executive vice-president of SK Telecom, said shortly after the successful blastoff. The DMB satellite is to beam digital broadcasting signals directly to mobile handsets on the ground.

SK Telecom, which controls more than 54 per cent of South Korea's 34 million-subscriber wireless market, has pushed for the commercial operation of the DMB service as part of its drive to find new revenue sources.

Last December, the company formed a business consortium called TU Media Corporation for the new service with about 200 domestic and foreign partners. The new entity is capitalized at 130bn won (110m dollars) and SK Telecom will own a 30 per cent stake.

Its Japanese partner, Mobile Broadcasting Corporation, an affiliate of electronics giant Toshiba Corporation, purchased a 10 per cent share in the consortium.

The satellite-based DMB service is expected to create economic value worth 9 trillion won in production and 184,000 jobs over the next 10 years, according to industry watchers.

KT Corporation, the country's largest fixed-line telecom company, is also preparing to offer a similar service, with the aim of launching its own commercial operation in 2006. Unlike SK Telecom, KT's mobile television broadcasting service is based on terrestrial networks.

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