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Now Even North Korea has a 3G Service ...
(16 Dec 2008, BWCS Staff)Egyptian mobile holding company Orascom Telecom has announced the launch of services by its North Korean venture Koryolink - the first mobile network to go live in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Koryolink's network will initially cover the capital, Pyongyang, which has a population of some two million; the network will later be expanded to cover the rest of the country.
The country is leaping straight in at the deep end with the launch of a commercial 3G network, neatly by-passing second generation services. Orascom has been working with the government since January of this year on a W-CDMA network.
Orascom announced at the beginning of 2008 that an operating licence had been granted to its North Korean subsidiary CHEO Technology, which is 25% owned by the state-run Korea Post and Telecommunications Corporation. Orascom said at the time that it would spend up to US$400 million on the licence plus network build. The terms of the franchise allow it to offer mobile services exclusively for the next four years and thereafter for a further 21 years.
The Egyptian company has been rapidly building out the network starting with Pyongyang and covering the majority of the other major cities in North Korea. It is not clear how much of the remaining country has been covered.
North Korea, which has a population of 23 million people, experimented with mobile phone services back in 2002. However, two years later the unchallengeable and unpredictable leader changed his mind on the mobile front and banned citizens from using wireless devices. Shortly after this move, the government began recalling all mobile phones. Only government officials were allowed to use the network that remains covering the capital.
Orascom Telecom also has operations in Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
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