Interesting follow-up to a previous report on North Korea attempting to jam GPS signals in Seoul and other areas of the South back in early March. SK Telecom, one of the South’s leading telecom providers, announced today that it had developed a new technique to protect 2G and later phones from future jamming attempts. The company plans to update its systems and fully implement the added protections by mid-April, helping safeguard its customers and their phones not only from future GPS jamming attempts, but also attempts by the North to block or reduce call quality.
In a surprising twist, SK also said it would make the knowledge available for free to other telecoms, apparently viewing the jamming as a national security issue rather than a chance to make a quick buck. Kudos to SK for that.
South Korea uses the CDMA system, like Verizon in the U.S., but not GSM (like AT&T). So the new technique is likely readily replicable by Verizon, should it so decide (in case Canada attacks?), but may be more complicated for AT&T (or anyone trying to use a GSM phone in South Korea).