Armed with high-end technology, Korea's first ubiquitous city will come on-line at the end of this March.

Korea Land Corporation said Monday (March 5) it will test run ubiquitous city (U-city) service for about 50 percent of the residential units in Dongtan New Town in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi-do (province), at the end of this month.

To this aim, Korea Land Corporation and KT, Korea's major Internet and telephone communication service provider, have provided 33.8 billion won and 30 billion won, respectively. The two firms have been establishing U-city service infrastructure and facilities, including an urban management center, networking and public service lines, since May 2006. The construction of the u-city system will be completed at the end of 2007.

The U-city service trial run will help bring full home networking to all 1010 Dongtan residential units from 2008, according to Korea Land Corporation staff.

This is in line with Korea's effort to accelerate the u-city construction project, in which the governmetn plans to allocate a combined 21.9 billion won (about $23 million) in subsidies until 2010 to local government bodies, the construction sector, Korea National Housing Corporation and Korea Land Corporation.

Continuously pushing ahead with establishing a broadband convergence network (BcN), radio frequency identification (RFID) and ubiquitous sensor network (USN), the Ministry of Information and Communication has drawn up a basic plan to accelerate u-city construction. Under the plan, the ministry is to revamp IT-related laws to facilitate sustained u-IT development while tightening information protection and developing a standard u-service model that allows for inter-compatibility.