(Seoul, 10 December 2007) SK Telecom established another landmark in the history of telecommunications by building a High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) network with speed of 5.76Mbps for the first time in the world.

SK Telecom announced that it established the world’s first commercial HSUPA network with speed of 5.76Mbps in two districts of Seoul, Gangdong-gu and Songpa-gu. Earlier in June 2007, SK Telecom built a 1.45Mbps-HSUPA network in Busan.

Starting with two districts, SK Telecom expects the coverage to extend to the entire city of Seoul by the first half of 2008, and to other major cities by the end of 2008. Full commercial service will be available in the second quarter of 2008 when handsets for HSUPA service will be released in the market.

The achievement in HSUPA shows SK Telecom’s technological prowess in CDMA and WCDMA areas already proven by its previous accomplishments. The Seoul-based carrier offered the world’s first commercial CDMA (IS-95A) mobile service in 1996 and succeeded in commercial deployment of Ev-Do network, both the world’s first.
 
HSUPA offers 5.76Mbps data transfer which marks a significant advancement from HSDPA, the previous 3.5G telecommunications technology. Under the new 5.76Mbps-HSUPA network, it takes just 1.4 seconds to send a 1 megabyte picture, 15 times faster than current available data transfer.

The establishment of HSUPA network is especially meaningful as it implies a major step forward in the history of telecommunication network. With improved upload speed, customers will be able to upload user-generated contents and enjoy ubiquitous services much faster than before. 

"We take great pride in this achievement. Twelve years ago, we succeeded in commercial deployment of CDMA technology for the first time in the world," said Jong Tae Ihm, Vice President of Mobile Device & Access Network R&D Center of SK Telecom.

"HSUPA marks another major advancement in our technology. We will continue to develop innovative services and technology that can satisfy our customers."