BEIJING-Reclusive North Korea has decided to build a GSM network, initially in an area 48 kilometers around the capital Pyongyang and to be expanded to cover the whole country by late 2004.
Capacity would be up to 400,000 subscribers, China’s state-owned Xinhua News Agency reported. It is likely that only people carefully vetted by the authorities would be allowed cell phones, which would remain prohibitively expensive for most North Koreans anyway.
The service will likely be run by Thailand’s Loxley Pacific, which launched a pilot service for 300 users in April.
