Samsung demonstrated an assortment of WiBro (wireless broadband) products and technology at the annual Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) trade show. In the five months since it unveiled the first WiBro demo in November 2004 in Korea, Samsung has been able to reduce the size of the WiBro compartment, shrinking the equipment to a tenth of the size of the original demo.

Samsung intends to commercially launch WiBro data access systems and handsets in Korea next year with sector data throughput speeds of up to 30 Mbps. Samsung is to use the experience gained from the Korean WiBro deployment to drive ongoing development of WiMax equipment for the global market.

WiBro, based on the 802.16e standard, offers mobility, wide-area services and global standardization for wireless broadband applications.

While high data rates can currently be achieved with wireless local area networks (WLANs), they offer limited coverage areas and fixed wireless access. With the 802.16e standard, wireless users can travel across large geographic areas while receiving data applications and multimedia content, at speeds up to 75 miles per hour.

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