North Korea To Get 3G Network... Despite Mobile Phone Ban

from the how's-that-going-to-work? dept

You may recall back in 2004 that North Korea banned all mobile phones following a freakout after news of a train accident started to spread. Phones had started to become quite popular, especially with local businessmen (and even more so near the border where they would trade with the Chinese). However, for four years, mobile phones have been pretty much entirely banned. This was in striking contrast, of course, to South Korea, which has been on the leading edge of mobile phone technologies for a decade.

However, it looks like North Korea may have finally realized that mobile phones are somewhat useful. It's granted a license to an Egyptian company, Orascom Telecom, to develop a mobile network. Of course, Orascom may find it difficult to really attract that many users, as the service will only be authorized for purchase by top government and military officials. Can't let the riffraff chat with each other, of course. And, of course, there's always the chance that, once built, the North Korean government will just claim the network as its own. While perhaps this is a step towards more communication in North Korea, so far it looks like the plan is to only use it for the government.

Filed Under: mobile phones, north korea, wireless
Companies: orascom