North Korea announces mobile phone Internet
May 25, 2009 by Jayvee Fernandez
Filed under Cell phone
Not news in itself but the context IS news. North Korea is slowly opening up its borders by introducing limited mobile phone coverage with Internet. The purpose, as it looks like, is for the network to allow access to information about the republic and act as some sort of cash cow with handset plans costing more than $100.00
More than 20,000 people had signed up for the service by April, according to a report by Choson Sinbo, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper published in Japan.
It said the network could provide voice and SMS services to as many as 126,000 customers in the Pyongyang area and along the highway between the capital and Hyangsan 120 km (75 miles) to the northeast.
It was unclear how many local people were being given access to the network but the phones would be outside the price range of many, at 110 euros (153 dollars) for a basic handset. [Yahoo News]
[image c/o Zuma Press]
