A pair of futuristic wireless technologies are competing to become Korea’s mainstream mode of connecting people on the move to the Internet. SK Telecom, the country’s foremost mobile operator, commercially launched the handset- based high-speed download packet access (HSDPA) early last week for the first time in the world. KT, the main rival of SK Telecom as the primary fixed-line carrier, is going through beta trials of WiBro, short for wireless broadband, with the aim of commercializing it next month. Both HSDPA and WiBro, called 3.5-generation techniques, enable people on the road to remain hooked up to the Internet at the speed of the current landline broadband. The two standards are similar in many respects - in addition to the fast data transmission speed, mobile reception is of a similar quality. Each has its own strengths and shortcomings and evaluation on their prospects are differing. Market observers are also divided into two opposing camps on the issue. In the future it will become how? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------- Nation: The Republic of Korea Name: sang-bin Lee E-mail address: krieg-spiel@hanmail.net <http://www.korea.com> <http://mail.korea.com/webbinder/>