Calling Pyongyang: Is Anybody Home?
North Korea, long the most secretive nation in Asia, is cautiously
opening its normally closed doors and in the process showing signs of
modernizing.
During May it has been welcoming an unprecedented number of
international tourists and journalists to witness the grand Arirang
festival, where 100,000 people dance and move in almost uncanny harmony,
and now appears to be on the verge of launching its first cellular
network. In the capital Pyongyang in early May, fairly strong cellular
signals could be received on the handsets that I and several other
journalists were allowed to take into the country, adding weight to a
growing number of reports that the official launch of the network is
coming sometime over the next few months.
The origin of the signals -- a GSM (Global System for Mobile
Communications) network with no identification and a CDMA (code division
multiple access) signal matching Chinese standards -- is unknown, but
Pyongyang's location, around 200 kilometers from both the Chinese and
South Korean borders, makes them unlikely to be anything but local
signals, said one analyst.
To date, the only work on a cellular network that has been officially
announced by the state-run media is the building of a network in the
Rajin-Sonbong special economic zone, a free- trade zone at the point
where North Korea, Russia, and China meet.
A 30-year contract to operate telecommunication services in the area was
awarded in 1995 to Northeast Asia Telephone and Telecommunications Co.
Ltd. (NEAT&T), in which Thailand's Loxley Pacific Co. Ltd. owns a 70
percent stake. State telco Korea Posts and Telecommunication Corp. holds
the remaining share. The company's GSM network has yet to get off the
ground, but commercial service is expected sometime this year.
Officials from Loxley Pacific declined to comment on whether the company
is building a network in Pyongyang beyond confirming that talks are
underway. When Kim Yong Nam, President of North Korea's Supreme People's
Assembly, visited Thailand in March, he attended a lunch hosted by the
company, according to reports.
A similar contract, running for 30 years and covering the international
telephone gateway and mobile network, was signed by Bermuda-registered
Lancelot Holdings Ltd. The company is currently in private hands after
being bought from Hong Kong's Sun's Group Ltd. (known as Pearl Oriental
Holdings Ltd. until this month) this year. A spokeswoman for the owner
confirmed the license is still current, but could not provide details of
plans for building a network.
But despite these previously signed contracts, other large companies are
keen to get a slice of the action. These include carriers across the
northern border in China and across the southern border in South Korea.
Officials from SK Telecom Co. Ltd., one of the largest mobile operators
in South Korea, visited North Korea at the end of 2001 and discussed
several issues, including mobile services, said a spokesman for the
company in Seoul.
Discussions on a mobile network also took place in China last year, when
North Korean Posts and Telecommunications Minister Lee Kum-bom visited
the country for 10 days, according to reports.
The launch of a cellular network would represent a major step in the
telecommunication development of the country, where digital lines
account for less than 5 percent of all lines and which has a fixed line
tele-density of 4.6 percent, according to a report by market analysts
Paul Budde Communication Pty. Ltd.
If launched, the network is likely to be open first to senior government
and Worker's Party officials. Whether it will be extended to ordinary
people is unknown, but two factors may run against the launch of a fully
commercial service. First, the average wage of Pyongyang residents is
very low. A female white-collar worker in Pyongyang interviewed by IDG
News Service said her salary was around US$65 per month, making a cell
phone a major purchase.
Beyond the cost of using the service, the second obstacle could lie in
the inability to monitor the network effectively, analyst Paul Budde
said.
"The biggest obstacle to a rapid deployment of the system is the fact
that devices monitoring cellular phone conversations have yet to be
secured and the government would find it hard to open a mobile phone
system without being able to monitor it," Budde wrote in a report.
» posted by ITworld staff
ITworld
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