The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) announced on 30 January that it completed the development of the prototype of 'Next Generation Mobile Communication 3GPP LTE,' which meets the international qualifications of International Organization for Standardization's 3GPP (The 3rd Generation Partnership Project), and made a successful demonstration in an exhibition service for the first time in the world.

3GPP LTE, developed under the supervision of Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), is a progressive version of Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) and the most potent technology for the Fourth Generation Mobile Communication (4G). It is largely expected that 3GPP LTE has a prior occupation effect conducive to compete for 4G international standardization that gets into its stride in 2008.

With the first successful demonstration of NoLA in the last October that International Telecommunication Union defines as the Fourth Generation Mobile Communication, moreover, this development and demonstration of 3GPP LTE prove again that Korea is a leading power of mobile communication technology.

In the demonstration of 3GPP LTE, held at ETRI, services like wireless transmission between base stations and terminals, voice telephone, video on demand (VOD), and webcam's live broadcasting, were introduced. In addition, core functions, such as data transmission through terminals on the road and Handover, were demonstrated. It is significant that the technologies demonstrated are a total system that could be applied to all standards of 3GPP LTE/SAE from MODEM to higher application services.

The total system can provide high-speed multimedia services, which are seven times faster than high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA), even in moving. It is expected that high-quality HD level mass content services could be served through mobile terminals like mobile phones and PDA.

ETRI has driven R&D in cooperation with industry as a part of '3G Evolution Wireless Transmission/Terminals/Access System Technology Development', a national policy R&D, for the last three years. As a result, it has applied for three hundreds patents, and has been trying for its IPR(International Property Right)s to be major parts of the international standards by presenting 170 drafts related with 3GPP.

According to Seol Jung-Sun, the Head of Information and Communication Policy, who participated in the demonstration, "from CDMA to WiBro, which became the 3G standard, Korea has continued its myth of the world's first commercialization of technology." He also emphasized, "based on this fruit, let's work together for Korea's technologies to be major parts of 4G international standards."