On March 20, 2002, SK Telecom announced the unconditional release of the technological standard of MPEG4-based (Footnote 1) VOD that was a key technology for furnishing streaming video services via cellular handsets.

Because SK Telecom disclosed the VDD technology and its operating know-how to domestic mobile communication service providers and relevant companies, billions of won of redundant investment in the development of the VOD technology will be avoided. Moreover, the time for the complete development of the technology and its testing will be shorten, thereby strengthening the global competitiveness of our national information communication industry.

Last year, SK Telecom launched the world?s first streaming video service via cellular handsets. By offering this service technology to other domestic mobile communication service providers, Korea?s cutting-edge mobile communication technology will be introduced and spread throughout world markets during the World Cup Soccer Games.

The VOD technology based on the MPEG4 converts moving images into the signal of the cellular network, and stores and reproduces the signal by allowing the connection between the terminal and a moving image control system. This technology also allows the provision of high quality streaming video due to a very high compression rate. SK Telecom invested about 10 billion Korean won in the development of this technology over 17 months and in May 2001 successfully launched a commercial service by using the CDMA2000 1X network.

By using the VOD technology through the CDMA2000 1X network, SK Telecom provides a wide variety of moving image and multimedia content such as animation, broadcasting news, movie previews, entertainment news, popular music, the main scenes of TV programs, etc. The company plans to offer higher quality streaming video service through the CDMA2000 1x EV-DO network by May of this year.

The technological standard of VOD that SK Telecom released is as follows: *Video and Audio Data Storage Format *File Format for the Adjustment of Synchronization in Reproducing Video and Audio *Wireless Environments and Detailed Measurements that Consider Limited Terminal Resources *Detailed Information and Guidelines of Header and Data Format for the Test of Interoperability *Other Core VOD Technology.

SK Telecom will release these technological sources through the homepage (www.kwisforum.org) of Wireless Internet Standardization Forum PSMWG (Packet Switched Multimedia Working Group) starting at midnight on March 19, 2002. Any company, including domestic mobile communications operators, which participate in this forum, can obtain the information.

Won Hee Sul, managing director of the Platform Research Center of SK Telecom, stated that ?SK Telecom decided to fully disclose the technological standard of VOD technology in order to build a favorable environments for related service operators to advance into overseas markets and to enhance the global competitiveness of the national mobile communication industry?. ?Taking this opportunity, mobile communications carriers will be able to shorten the period for the complete development of VOD service technology? he added.

Footnote 1: MPEG4(Moving Picture Expert Group-4)
This is an overall encoding standard that has been under development since 1995, in order to provide key standardized technology which allows effective video data operation, transmission, and storage under a vast array of multimedia environments such as mobile communication network, PSTN, ATM, Internet, and narrowband ISDN, among others.