Korea's SK Telecom have launched their new HSDPA mobile phone network, offering data transfer speeds of up to 14.4Mbps. Unfortunately, the latest HSDPA-equipped phones will 'only' support 1.8Mbps. SK Telecom has had this problem in the past. So advanced is its network (and most other Korean networks), that it frequently outpaces the mobile phones that use it.

Back in 2002, Korean mobile phone companies were going to start 3G services, but due to there being no 3G phones around then, they decided to skip 3G and go straight for 3.5G (i.e. HSPDA). Of course, now their 3.G networks are ready, there are still no speedy HSDPA mobile phones available!

Undaunted, SK Telecom has gone ahead with their launch anyway, predicting that 14.4Mbps handsets will be available in two years' time (though by then, their network's data transfer speeds will probably be measured in Gbps!).

14.4Mbps? I still remember the days of GSM's 9.6kbps! Come to think of it, that was only a few years ago. Oh, for mobile technology like the Koreans have!

[Source: JoongAng Daily]