SK Telecom introduced the HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) terminal to the market on May 16 and launched the HSDPA service in Korea for the first time in the world. At the same time, it launched the new brand 3G+ (3G Plus) service to help customers make easy access to the HSDPA service with which it succeeded in commercialization for the first time in the world. The world's first commercialization of the HSDPA by SK Telecom means that Korea has begun to launch high-speed databased new service, converting the market from subscriber competition to service competition. Considering that WCDMA (wideband code division multiple access) is the mainstream of the 3-generation mobile telephone technology, Korean companies are also able to accelerate their advancement into foreign markets by preoccupying the world's HSDPA market. With the success of SK Telecom, Korea became the first nation to start a commercial HSDPA, a new mobile phone technology that provides clearer and smoother phone-tophone video calls and enables a multiple-user video chatting service. SK Telecom, the nation's largest mobile carrier, said that it is now launching the service in 25 major cities nationwide, including Seoul, Incheon, Busan, Daegu, Daejeon and Jeju. The service will be expanded to 84 cities in the latter half of this year. By the end of this year, SK Telecom plans to increase the number of HSDPA subscribers to 300,000. Often referred to as 3.5G, HSDPA is a wireless technology that bridges present third-generation systems, WCDMA, and fourth-generation platforms that have yet to be commercialized. The HSDPA phones can download voice, video or other multimedia data at 1.8 megabits per second (Mbps), which is about five times faster than existing 3G handsets. SK Telecom said that it will improve the data transmission speed to 14.4 Mbps by 2008. The new handsets also can display video images three times clearer than existing 3G platforms, the company said. The smooth supply of terminals is a prerequisite to activate the HSDPA service. In addition to the handset-type Samsung W200 introduced to the market this time, a total of four or five terminals, including LG SH-100 terminal slated for June, are expected to debut within this year. The factory price of the slide-type W200 terminal with 2 million pixels based on satellite DMB is around the middle of the 700,000 won level. However, SK Telecom said that its subscribers would receive a 300,000 won subsidy when they purchase the HSDPA handsets, regardless of the subscription period. Accordingly, customers can buy the HSDPA handsets at around 400,000 won. 3G+ refers to the 3.5-generation mobile communication service that offers better services, including the image telephone call and super-speed data transmission services, than the existing 3-generation mobile communication service. Major services offered by 3G+ of SK Telecom are high-quality image telephone call, high-speed data service and convenient global roaming service. The high-quality image telephone call, "3G+" is expected to develop the future mobile communication service from the "listening call" to the "seeing call." It also offers a variety of additional services, including image chatting, image color ring and image mail box services. SK Telecom plans to expand the objects of the image telephone call from the existing "phone to phone" to "web to phone" and the "linkage with Internet phone" in the future. In the meantime, SK Telecom has been actively pushing for developing life infrastructure service, which loads transportation, membership and coupon on the subscriber certification card USIM Card, and the financial infrastructure service, which loads the M Bank of SK Telecom and MSTOCK. The government and the telecommunication industry have been developing the HSDPA as one of the nation's strategic industries along with WiBro, a wireless Internet technology, and DMB, or digital multimedia broadcasting.