Millions of moviegoers would approve

If you're a regular visitor to Monster Island, you're no doubt familiar with North Korea's unexpected cell phone market.

Indeed, back in December 2008, I first blogged about North Korea's plans to implement a 3G network (that one includes a list of North Korean emoticons). I then reported in November 2010 that North Korean youth had led to a quadrupling of cell phone subscriptions in the DPRK (which autocorrect wants to change to dork), and again in April 2011 that their 18,750% growth over the past three years made them the fastest growing mobile market in the world.

[source]

At the time, I expressed my pleasure that the Norks were allowing such openness, perhaps the sign of positive pressure from China, which hopes to see North Korea follow Deng-esque reform:

Anyway, I'm thinking Orascom's North Korean adventure is a good thing. 300K subscriptions means there is one cell phone for every eighty people, and that number is growing. Simply put, the more subscribers there are, the harder it is for the authorities to monitor communications.

Well, unfortunately, there may be folks in Pyongyang who also visit Monster Island, and they may have taken note of what I'd written in the very next paragraph:

And while most or nearly all the current subscribers are regime loyalists, if events go sour in such a way that it turns people against the dynasty or the party or whatever (as they have done for much of the peasantry), then — boom! — you've got an instant means of communication for the opposition. Indeed, the Egypt-based Orascom may very well be paving the way for North Korea's own version of a popular uprising somewhere down the Jasmine Revolutionary road.

Certainly I'm not the only one who has suggested such things, though I was one of the first. And this week we get news that indeed the North Korean government may be sitting up and taking notice at the potential threat of all those cell phones: the regime has announced a ban on cell phones:

North Korea has warned that any of its citizens caught trying to defect to China or using mobile phones during the 100-day mourning period for Kim Jong-il will be branded as "war criminals" and punished accordingly.

Granted, this is just for a three-month period and be completely lifted in the spring, but it could be an ominous sign of things to come. This certainly isn't a first when it comes to draconian measures against mobile devices: In May 2011, we also got word that the regime was cracking down on unauthorized phones smuggled in from China.

Though I'm no fan of Selig Harrison, I share his view that the seemingly monolithic regime in Pyongyang is actually caught up in some serious factionalism, the kind you'd see in any Korean palace drama on the telly. And I'm holding out that the Michael Jordan-loving Kim Jong-un, who have long believed is just a figurehead, may somehow find a way to transcend the fears of the different cliques in the government and drag his country into the 21st century, or at least the 20th century (circa 1990s). And if cell phone usage returns, I can hold onto that hope.

If not, prepare for things to get ugly before they get any better.

"Arrest him!" [source]

...

Half-million man mark

This photo is from January 25, 2011, when Orascom chairman Naguib Sawiris met in Pyongyang with Jang Song-thaek and Dear Leader Kim Jong-il, who is looking fat and fit, for whatever that means at his age and in his condition. Jang and Sawiris look totally sloshed; I suspect Kim Jong-il was the designated driver.

Orascom, the Egyptian telecom firm that is responsible for North Korea's cellular phone system, announced that they have reached the half-million mark in number of subscribers.

This is not news to denizens of Monster Island, who have read about Orascom's North Korean (ad)venture several times and have some idea what I think this could mean:

• The world's fastest growing mobile market 

• More bars in more prisons

• A guide to North Korean emoticons

Running (the country) scared

We already have news that the Pyongyang regime, like its benefactors in Beijing, is very nervous that everyday North Koreans are going to find out about the Jasmine Revolution that is irrevocably changing the face of the Middle East.

Simply put, the North Korean government does not want the P in DPRK to find out that people in Tunisia and Egypt have successfully banded together to oust leaders that have been in power for decades, or that folks in Libya have taken up arms against long-time leader Moammar Gaddafi. It's serious enough that they told North Korean workers in Libya — who are in harm's way — to stay right where they are and not to come back to North Korea and spread the information contagion.

And now we get news that, as part of that mini Great Firewall, the North Korean authorities are rounding up illegal cell phones.

From AFP:

North Korea has started a drive to confiscate mobile phones smuggled from China in an attempt to suppress news from the outside world, a group of defectors from the communist state said.

North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity said in its latest newsletter police in North Hamkyong and Yangkang provinces bordering Russia and China have started urging residents to voluntarily surrender mobile phones or face punishment.

It cited sources in the border cities of Hyesan and Hoeryong.

Probably a legal phone.

The police warned that special devices to detect mobile phone use had been brought in to punish "those spreading capitalist ideas and eroding socialism", the group quoted one of the sources as saying.

North Korea strictly controls access to outside information and fixes the tuning controls of radios and televisions to official stations.

But many residents in border areas that can receive mobile reception from China are known to use smuggled phones to talk to relatives and friends who escaped the impoverished state to settle in China or South Korea.

At present users restrict conversations to five minutes, the minimum time authorities need to trace a call, said the source.

Such crackdowns are not new, by the way.

Anyhow, I wonder how true that is the police they can detect cell phones. Do they have to be on in order to detect them? I hope it's not Apple's Find My iPhone service.

As usual, whenever I talk about North Korea and mobile phone service, I must include a link to the list of North Korean emoticons.

The world's fastest growing mobile market

From the San Francisco Chronicle, news of an incredible wireless communications venture: They provide full 3G coverage across the country for just a few bucks a month... with 18,750% growth over the past three years...

Hey, sign me up for service... and call my broker and get me some of them stock!

Oh, wait. It's North Korea.

I guess the leftists at the SFC are getting a jump on welcoming our new Juche-exporting overlords.

Anyway, I'm thinking Orascom's North Korean adventure is a good thing. 300K subscriptions means there is one cell phone for every eighty people, and that number is growing. Simply put, the more subscribers there are, the harder it is for the authorities to monitor communications.

And while most or nearly all the current subscribers are regime loyalists, if events go sour in such a way that it turns people against the dynasty or the party or whatever (as they have done for much of the peasantry), then — boom! — you've got an instant means of communication for the opposition. Indeed, the Egypt-based Orascom may very well be paving the way for North Korea's own version of a popular uprising somewhere down the Jasmine Revolutionary road.

UPDATE:
Cell phones come with texting, so this is as good a place as any to link to my handy-dandy list of North Korean emoticons.

iPhone5 buzz: 2011 in America will be 2003 in South Korea

As a long-time Mac user, I am guilty of having once or twice used the following joke to underscore that Microsoft was incapable of producing an operating system that was anything more than a poor and untimely imitation of Apple's far more innovative, stable, and superior Macintosh OS:

Windows 95 = Macintosh 87

Well, I suppose we could trot out a similar gag now, but with Apple as the butt of the joke. You see, there are rumors that users of the new iPad 2 or iPhone 5, which will reportedly come out in mid-winter and late spring, respectively, will be able to use the devices like a credit card. This, of course, is a technology that has been a success in South Korea since 2003 (it was actually introduced in 2002, but didn't take off right away) and widely used in Japan since 2004.

Anyway, here's the Bloomberg story:

Apple Inc. plans to introduce services that would let customers use its iPhone and iPad computer to make purchases, said Richard Doherty, director of consulting firm Envisioneering Group.

The services are based on “Near-Field Communication,” a technology that can beam and receive information at a distance of up to 4 inches, due to be embedded in the next iteration of the iPhone for AT&T Inc. and the iPad 2, Doherty said. Both products are likely to be introduced this year, he said, citing engineers who are working on hardware for the Apple project.

Apple’s service may be able to tap into user information already on file, including credit-card numbers, iTunes gift-card balance and bank data, said Richard Crone, who leads financial industry adviser Crone Consulting LLC in San Carlos, California.

Prior to having an iPhone, I was content to use my various LG cellular phones in Korea and in the US just for calling and texting, even though the Korean ones apparently did a heck of a lot more. There's something about the iPhone, though, that just lends itself to doing these complicated tasks easily and with confidence. (Another part of the reason was that continuing to use my good old-fashioned Asiana Airlines credit card gave me beaucoup miles.)

However, now I may give this mobile payment system a shot, but I don't see myself getting an iPhone 5 when it comes out, just because my iPhone 4 still feels very new and it does pretty much everything I want it to do, and a lot of the new stuff will be iOS-related anyway, and thus will work on the iPhone4 anyhow.

But still, some of these possible changes sound sweet, and I will be tempted to get the iPad 2, especially if it does end up with a retina display (the iPhone 4 has spoiled me).

More bars in more prisons places

The Straits Times is reporting that the Egyptian mobile carrier Orascom has said cell phone subscriptions in North Korea have quadrupled:

Mobile phone subscriptions have more than quadrupled in North Korea in 12 months, the operator said, as a growing number of youths in the reclusive communist state clamour for wireless telecom.

Cairo-based Orascom Telecom Holding said in its third quarter earnings report that the number of subscribers in the country had jumped to 301,199 by the end of September from 69,261 a year earlier.

'Koryolink continued the utilisation of its 3G network and successfully launched the video calling service to the market which resulted in a high level of demand, especially from the youth segment,' it said on its website on Sunday.

More and more youth driving the mobile phone craze? Um, is this North Korea? Seriously, this is weird, but a good sign, as the more people there are with cell phones the harder (and more resource-consuming) it is for the ruling apparatus to keep tabs on them all. And here's hoping that Kim Jong-il and Jang Songthaek get carpal tunnel syndrome.

Joshua at One Free Korea had a post on this back in June 2009, where Orascom said they hoped to hit 100,000 subscriptions by the end of that year.

And of course, no post on North Korea's cellular service would be complete without me linking to this handy-dandy guide to North Korean emoticons.