HSDPA (Definition) is called 3.5 G service. To give a 101 on the evolution of mobile services for those who haven't really followed with all these geeky jargons:
- GSM (assuming most users would still be using this) is 2G.
- GPRS is 2.5G.
- W-CDMA (UMTS) is 3G. So from 3G, there's no clear line between GSM and CDMA : All converge to W-CDMA.
- HSDPA is 3.5G.
4G is called all-IP network which means all competing standards will merge together: Wifi, Wimax, DMB, HSDPA, and so on.
For CDMA market (some part of US, Brazil, China, Korea, and India) the counting is different: CDMA is 2G, CDMA 2000 is 2.5G.
What makes the story a bit confusing is the "CDMA 2000 1x EVDO". Although 3G is W-CDMA, the CDMA guys have sometimes called CDMA 2000 1x EVDO a 3G service as well, presumably out of marketing purposes. Although EV-DO provided theoretical maximum download speed that could match that of W-CDMA, that was theoretical maximum speed, not a real one. So, EV-DO was not and is not a 3G service.
Interestingly, that means Korean mobile market essentially "skipped" the 3G. Yes, folks, although you thought Korea was a leading 3G country, Korea in fact had a faster side of 2.5G (EV-DO), and now we are heading directly into 3.5G (HSDPA).
You can pretty much think of Wibro as Wi-fi, but with mobile accessibility. When you are on the move, your hotspot antenna also runs with you (I know this is terrible description of technology but at least it helps people grasp the concept more easily.)
You can imagine all sorts of fantastic things you will be able to do with Wibro network + supporting devices (a UMPC or a mobile phone). Ubiquitous internet, finally here with us.
So, between HSDPA and Wibro, which will reach the critical mass of initial subscribers first? Korea is a broadband nation, so selling Wibro plan bundled with fixed broadband makes sense and such practice may bring KT a significant initial user base quite rapidly. On the other hand, SK Telecom and KTF are marketing genius: When they want to sell something, they sell something.
But what's much more likely is these two seemingly competing standards will get mingled together to provide maximum user value. So it will be interesting to watch Korean market in '06 when these two standards get deployed in similar time frame.
Some web folks might ask, why do all these mobile interenet technologies matter to me? They matter because, as Charlie Schick puts, "There are more mobile phones than PCs, there are more Net-connected phones than PCs, and the scale of mobile phones means that a few companies (maybe one or two) touch almost all of the mobile phone users in the world in a more personal way than Microsoft, Intel, or even Dell do."
