Hanaro Telecom, South Korea’s second largest broadband service provider, has entered into a partnership with Japanese telecom equipment maker Kyocera to develop 3G wireless data communications technology.

• Develop wireless data transfer technology for mobile phones
• Launch a high-speed Internet service based on the wireless transfer technology initiated by Kyocera
• Initiate the development of 4G mobile technology

Hanaro’s president Shin Yun – sik said the company would launch a commercial wireless local loop (WLL) service promising a data transfer speed of up to one megabits per second at its peak rate, using a 2.3 GHz bandwidth.

This pack with Kyocera is part of Hanaro’s broader business strategy to become a "truly integrated telecom company" — offering wired and wireless services — by 2005.

Hanaro’s first entry into the wireless arena came with the launch of a pilot wireless LAN service, dubbed HanaFos AnyWay, which will be introduced commercially on February 1^st.

Besides launching a wireless LAN service, Hararo will also "offer remote management technology to enable system administrators to control corporate network servers from afar with handheld computers and other portable devices," said Hanaro’s senior managing executive Doo Won-soo.

With its higher data transmission speed of up to 11 mbps, the new service is expected to attract the attention of the corporate customer, Doo Won-soo said.

By the end of the year, the telecom hopes to expand its wireless LAN service into 15,000 centers across the country, while introducing a wide range of applications including a voice-activated data communications service.