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S KOREAN CELL PHONE MAKERS TO OFFER MORE EV-DO MODELS IN 2004
Asia Pulse
SEOUL, March 16


South Korea's big-three cell phone manufacturers are stepping up shipments of handsets that use an advanced version of code division multiple access, or CDMA, technology, industry sources said on Tuesday.

Most of the handsets that are now being offered in the country's retail stores are faster cell phones, based on Qualcomm's CDMA2000 EV-DO (evolution-data optimized) standard.

Owners of the EV-DO phones are able to download music files or swap pictures at up to 2.4 megabits per second, 42 times the speed of a traditional phone line.

Samsung Electronics Co. (KSE:005930), the world's third-largest cell phone maker, expects domestic shipments of the latest handsets to rise as much as 80 per cent this year from about 70 per cent last year.

Its rival LG Electronics Inc. (KSE:066570), the world's sixth-largest cell phone maker, also plans to roll out 25 new EV-DO models, which is about half of its product lineup for next year.

Pantech & Curitel Communications Inc., South Korea's third-largest handset maker with its allied company Pantech Co. (KSE:025930), said it will increase the volume of EV-DO cell phones to 50 per cent of its local shipments in 2004 from 15 per cent last year.

Since its debut in mid-2002, demand for EV-DO handsets, featuring Internet access, multimedia, voice, video and data services, has been rapidly growing among young cell phone users, the source said.

However, the cell phone manufacturers have been frustrated in selling the EV-DO handsets due to a chip shortage by Qualcomm Inc., a U.S. wireless firm.

Industry watchers said Samsung Electronics missed its production targets in January and February because of the insufficient chip supply. It isn't immediately known what caused the problem.

Qualcomm holds core patents of CDMA technology used in mobile phones, and South Korean companies were the first in the world to commercialize it.

The San Diego-based company collects royalties of 5.25 per cent on local sales of cell phones, and 5.75 per cent on exports from South Korean manufacturers.

(Yonhap)