Reaching for the Stars With Digital Convergence ... - Korea IT Times

2006-03-12006.3.410:47AM페이지14001채널맥(3443-0701)
Policy Direction / MIC
MIC Unveils its Annual
Operations Plan for 2006
The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) plans
to push its new ‘u-IT839’ Strategy in earnest to create an IT
industry with revenues of 576 trillion won and added-value
of 277 trillion won during the next five years through 2010.
The Ministry announced on February 8 its annual plan for
2006 which outlined the u-IT839 Strategy, a revised version of
the IT-839 Strategy set up in February 2004, and policies to bring
about the Ubiquitous Society.
In the newly designed u-IT839 Strategy, the Internet phone
service (VoIP), which has already been commercialized, was
excluded from the list of eight new services outlined in the previous
u-IT839 Strategy. In addition, DMB and DTV services were
combined into a single service to be replaced by “broadband convergence
services”’ and “IT services” to reflect today’s trend of
attaching importance to software and the convergence of communication
with broadcasting.
In the category of the three major infrastructures outlined in
the strategy, the Internet address system IPv6 was integrated into
BcN and was replaced by “soft infraware” in its place. In the list
of nine new engines of growth, mobile communication and telematics
equipment were integrated into one to be replaced by
RFID/USN devices.
According to MIC’s forecast, the IT industry is expected to
post an annual growth of 14.2% during the five-year period until
2010 and create revenues totaling 576 trillion won with addedvalues
worth 266 trillion won.
In his briefing to the press, Minster Chin said, “The u-IT839
Strategy will strengthen the tie-ups among services, infrastructures,
and new engines of growth and will give vitality to
the nation’s economy by actively fostering software and
facilitating the convergence between the IT sectors
with non-IT fields.”
The Advent of “National Robots” as Household
Assistants
MIC has announced that the government plans
to develop “national robots” at a price of one million
won each for their use in households this
year.
Based on the view that production costs can
be drastically reduced when intelligent robots
will be developed by utilizing the nation’s
advanced network infrastructure, the government
set up a special task force last year for
Chin Dae-je, minister of information and communication,
announces MIC’s annual plan for 2006 at MIC’s conference room
on Feb. 8, 2006
developing national robots.
The ministry said that R&D projects, such as platform standardization
for component modulation and for securing the compatibility
between devices, are being carried out as scheduled.
Accordingly, the ministry forecasts, national robots will give new
vitality to the society.
HSDPA and WiBro to Open Ultra High-Speed Internet Age
During the first half of this year, WiBro, the world’s first wireless
broadband Internet, will go into commercial service in Korea.
To better facilitate this momentous service, the government
plans to oversee and assist its implementation
by building up a cooperative system among
the tripartite entities of businesses, academic
circles and research institutions. In addition,
the government plans to formulate favorable
business environment by preparing a specialized
fee system for WiBro service.
In the meantime, the government plans to
introduce HSDPA, a new W-CDMA channel
with a maximum transmission speed of
16Mbps, by the end of this year. When this
goes into service, Korea will be opening an
ultra high-speed Internet Age true to its name.
Area of Service for Terrestrial DMB to be
Expanded Nationwide
In order to secure usable frequencies for the terrestrial DMB at
the regional level, the ministry intends to redress the usable frequencies
for 44 T-DMB stations. The ministry said that it would
issue licenses expeditiously upon the recommendations by the
Korea Broadcasting Commission for opening the “Era of
Handheld TVs”’ around the nation.
Since the bright prospects of DMB as a major trade item have
already been confirmed, the ministry said it will actively foster
DMB-related businesses. To this end, the ministry plans to exert
effort to make DMB adopted this year as
ITU’s international standards following
the ETSI’s adoption last year.
According to the ministry’s forecast,
the number of DMB subscribers will
grow to 2.1 million by the end of this
year, and to 15 million by 2010, with
the cumulative sum of exports made
through DMB players during the corresponding
period expected to reach 35
billion US dollars.
Entire Nation to Receive Terrestrial
Digital TV Access
Terrestrial digital TV broadcasting
in Korea, which began service in metropolitan
regions in 2004, is slated for
nationwide service as 17 additional
cities and counties will be included in
serviced areas under the scope of 41
digital TV stations.
Partial Adoption of “Real-Name
System” on the Internet
As part of a government scheme to keep Internet sound cyberspace,
the ministry has come up with a number of measures.
These include partial adoption of a ‘real name system’, an arbitration
system for the prevention of cyber disputes, the development
and dissemination of software for informing spam, and development
of Privacy Trust Score (PTS) that can measure the degree of
privacy being protected.
In addition to these, the ministry plans to develop automatic
verification systems to check falsification of electronic documents
and software for the protection of corporate information.
For the purpose of preventing hacking on the Internet, the ministry
plans to run ‘automatic hacking search system’ 200 times
annually and thereby prevent hacking on about 70,000 major
Web sites.
High-Speed Internet for Villages with More Than 30
Households
As part of a government plan to bridge the information gap,
the ministry plans to make the high-speed Internet accessible to
about 130,000 households that have thus far been left secluded
from the information network.
In addition, the ministry said it plans to provide educational
programs to some 890,000 “information-alienated” people -
including the elderly, handicapped and North Korean migrants -
and supply them with a total of 25,000 IT devices.
To support this project, the ministry plans to invest a total of
43.7 billion won this year.
“Mobile Number One Project” Launched
The ministry announced that it would implement the “Mobile
Number One Project” for Korea to become a
top “mobile nation” and lead the global
market by 2010. The ministry said that the
project is highly significant in the sense that
it not only commemorates the 10th anniversary
of CDMA’s successful commercialization,
but will also open the era of $30,000
per capita income by creating another success
story after CDMA’s.
To achieve this goal, the ministry has
outlined five major strategies: the building
of “Mobile Special Districts”’ for laying
down the mobile environment for the next
generation; the formation of cheap and safe
mobile environment; the securement of
technological edge to lead the global mobile
market; the building of an environment for
creating new mobile businesses; and the
formation of a foundation for the mobile
industry’s continued growth.
UN-ESCAP ICT Training Center to Bolster
Korea’s Leadership
The ministry said that it plans to build up Korea’s leadership
role in the IT field on the global stage by opening the ICT
Training Center of the United Nations Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) and actively
promote international cooperation, through such means as the
training of IT manpower from developing countries.
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