South Korea leading CDMA race

South Koreans are heavy users of mobile phones operating on the CDMA standard.

HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- The soccer field is not the only venue where World Cup co-host South Korea is showing its prowess.

On the world telecom stage, too, South Korea is ahead of the competition.

In October 2000, Korea's top mobile carrier SK Telecom became the world's first operator to launch a commercial mobile service using CDMA 2000 technology, a precursor to full third-generation (3G) services.

CDMA, or Code Division Multiple Access, is a cellular technology which can deliver multimedia applications such as games, video on demand, video messages and high-speed Internet access.

Developed by Qualcomm

According to industry experts, CDMA 2000 offers bandwidth similar to the GSM 2.5G networks found in Europe. Japanese mobile phone giant NTT DoCoMo launched the first full 3G commercial service in October last year.

CDMA, which was developed by U.S. firm Qualcomm Inc, is the dominant wireless technology in the United States and South Korea, and competes with GSM, which is popular in Europe and parts of Asia.

"They've had initiatives in place where they felt from a worldwide competitive advantage that this was an area they wanted to invest in," says Perry Forge, executive director of the CDMA development group, "and I certainly think it is bearing fruit for them."

There are now more than 10 million CDMA 2000 subscribers worldwide, the vast majority in Asia.

"Our customers were willing to take new technology, and they used it very enthusiastically, more than other people," explains Myung S. Lee, vice president of SK Telecom. "So we are in a position when we introduce new services, it's taken more easily than in other countries."

Transcending borders

But that's not the end of it. Korean telecom carriers are working on going global, and some have already started exporting their initiatives and knowhow.

"We are in a position to test them on our market, on our customers, in our infrastructure," says Lee, "and that will help put us in a very strong position in the 3G market."

And now, South Korea's leading phone carriers could help ring in changes in North Korea. Like the World Cup soccer, technology could provide an opportunity to transcend political boundaries.

Officials from both countries reached a deal this month to push ahead with mobile phone service projects in the north, as early as this year.

The two Koreas remain technically at war after the Korean War ended in the 1950s without a peace treaty. There are no direct communications between them across the demilitarized zone (DMZ).

But as LG Telecom chief technology officer Kim Youn-kwan says: "We are brothers anyway. And eventually we are looking into unification."

"I don't know how long it's going to take," Kim says, noting the difficulties involved in unifying two states that are at different stages of economic growth.