Samsung Mobile Prototype Enables Data Transfers up to 100 Mbps

By Laura Stotler

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

Samsung Electronics Co. demonstrated its latest mobile technology today, beaming a high-definition movie wirelessly to a moving minibus from a South Korean conference on fourth-generation (4G) wireless that the company is hosting. The device aboard the minibus switched seamlessly between two base stations so the signal wouldn’t be lost as the vehicle stayed in motion.

 

Samsung’s current prototype enables data transfers of 100 Mbps, which is about 30 times faster than typical broadband internet speeds. The solution works when the receiver is moving as fast as 75 mph. The data receiver is currently the size of a data receiver, however, and the company doesn’t envision it will be small enough to fit into a mobile phone until around 2008, according to Lee Ki-take, head of Samsung’s telecommunications division.

 

Devices aren’t expected to be ready to ship to consumers until around 2010. South Korea offers limited WiMax services and plans to cover the Seoul region with service by early 2007, according to Hong Won-pyo, executive vice president of Korea Telecom.

 

Sprint (News - Alert) Nextel Corp. plans to launch WiMax networks in some U.S. markets by late 2007 through partnerships with Intel (News - Alert), Samsung and Motorola (News - Alert) Inc.