The US and South Korea have agreed to allow US wireless
suppliers to market their products in South Korea and use a Korean
web downloading standard.
In the past two years, South Korea has moved toward a mandated
standard called Wireless Internet Platform for Interoperability
(WIPI) for downloading content from the internet onto mobile
phones.
The agreement gives US wireless equipment makers access to the
WIPI standard, which makes use of Sun Microsystems' Java 2 Micro
Edition.
The mandate shut out competing download technologies from
Qualcomm, but under the new agreement Qualcomm can use WIPI.
The US hopes that the resolution of this issue can provide
momentum for resolution of another telecommunications standards
issue: Korea's plan to mandate an exclusive domestic transmission
standard for portable broadband wireless internet.
The agreement between the two countries follows an agreement
negotiated with China over a wireless encryption standard the
country was set to mandate in June. Last week, China had agreed to
suspend indefinitely its proposed proprietary national encryption
standard for wireless Lans. China also agreed to adopt a policy of
technology neutrality for licensing new cellular services.
Grant Gross writes for IDG News
Service