North Korea gets 3G

by Tim Stevens posted May 23rd 2008 at 9:03PM

Around these parts, mention "3G" and you'll get an earful of the latest speculation on just when Apple's retooled iPhone will be making its first official appearance. Mention the same in North Korea, though, and you're likely to get some curious glances. Until just a few months ago, the simple act of making a mobile call within the nation's borders was a crime punishable by public execution. Via hanging. Seriously. With the ban dropped, Orascom Telecom, the only such company to be allowed to open up shop there, has completed its first 3G call. The Egyptian-based carrier is still setting up its nation-wide network, with hopes of going live coast-to-coast by the end of the year. Take that, China.

[Via IntoMobile]

Filed under: Misc

Tags: 3g, north korea, NorthKorea, orascom telecom, OrascomTelecom

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Highest Ranked

aeleth @ May 24th 2008 1:33AM

"Coast-to-coast"...? In North Korea...? Will this cover all their concentration camps too?

http://www.hrnk.org/hiddengulag/pdf/Overview.pdf

Neutral

PSM @ May 24th 2008 1:55AM

Kind of sad that there are large sections of the US more backward technologically than North Korea.

Neutral

Erwos @ May 24th 2008 10:16PM

Yes, because having demonstrated a 3G call makes North Korea SO advanced. Do you spend all day just waiting for an excuse to take a dump on the US?

Neutral

elgee02 @ May 25th 2008 2:56AM

I nominate this post by PSM for "Dumbest Post Ever"

Neutral

PSM @ May 25th 2008 12:17PM

WTF are you people on? I'm an American who wants better cell coverage. Don't you? Do you find it odd that we are the most powerful nation on earth and there are suburbs of major cities like NYC and Boston that don't have 3G? Or that other countries in Europe and elsewhere are pretty much blanketed in the latest and greatest wireless technologies way before we are.

I'm just saying we're slipping behind when we have the resources to do so much more. Why do some of our major metropolitan areas have last-gen coverage, or little-to-no coverage at all, when a country where many of the people barely have food and electricity is already starting to roll out 3G? I'm not saying NK isn't crazy and has a lot of their priorities in the wrong place, but it would not be crazy for the US to put a little more of its vast resources toward improving our technology infrastructure.

Neutral

Jamar @ May 25th 2008 12:50PM

Blame rests solely with the FCC. They took an eternity to clear out only part of the necessary bandwidth to start auctioning 3G (that's why America's 3G will be 2100/1700, except for AT&T's plain 1900 and 850 networks, whereas the rest of the world has 2100/1900). The carriers once cared- the old AT&T partnered with DoCoMo and even got some of the nice phones that were sold in Japan (then they dumped the partnership when they joined Cingular; they're starting to pick it back up now that they're AT&T again, which is nice).

Neutral

elgee02 @ May 25th 2008 2:07PM

What the hell are you talking about PSM? You are EXTREMELY misinformed here. EV-DO Rev A covers over 250 million people here in the US, TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLION. So you are lying right out of your ass when you say suburbs of NYC and Boston don't have 3G... maybe not with AT&T but VZW and Sprint sure cover them.

Neutral

PSM @ May 25th 2008 2:55PM

I think you're basing your assumptions on a map or a press statement by the wireless industry. I base mine on standing at a specific place on the earth and trying to make a phone call. With both Verizon and AT&T, in the past year. There are places without enough coverage to hold a call, much less get 3G data. I'm sure somewhere in that zip code or whatever is a tower that allows them to say it's covered, but the fact is there are still lots of people whose homes and offices and other places they require service do not have adequate coverage. I'm lucky to live and work in 3G zones, but I visit many others that are not. Have you seriously never met or heard of someone who says, "my house doesn't have 3G" or "the side of my building where my office is doesn't get enough service, I have to go to the windows on the other side to make a call"?

Things have gotten much better in the last 6 months or so, but there is still room for improvement.

Neutral

elgee02 @ May 25th 2008 4:23PM

www.vzw.com/reva

Downright impressive some of the tiny ass towns covered in 3G, such as my hometown Winslow of 8,000 people in the middle of nowhere in northern Arizona... excellent EV-DO coverage.

So lets recap, because North Korea is JUST NOW starting to roll out 3G you conclude that because parts in the States DON'T have 3G (which are very far and few between) they are are more technologically backwards than North Korea?

What's backwards is that asinine logic used to come to that conclusion. NO country has 100% blanket 3G coverage (except maybe one of those tiny ass European ones like Monaco or Luxemborg perhaps), that doesn't make them inferior technologically to North Korea.

Neutral