SK Telecom considers Investment in LightSquared

On 09.22.10, In Mobile, By Editor

­South Korea’s SK Telecom has confirmed that it is in talks to invest in the USA based LTE network operator, LightSquared.

The investment is reported to be in the region of US$100 million. This would be the second attempt of the company to enter the US market. It invested in a MVNO joint venture with Earthlink, Helio but eventually sold it for US$39 million to Virgin Mobile USA.

According to the SK Telecom spokeswoman, the company is in talks with Harbinger to decide investment terms.

LightSquared controls important high quality spectrum assets of 59 MHz of nationwide spectrum in a beneficial frequency position. In addition to the US$2.9 billion of assets already contributed by Harbinger Capital Partners and affiliates, LightSquared is announcing additional debt and equity financing of up to US$1.75 billion.

The greenfield operator was stated to have attained a US$750 million four-year loan from UBS AG last week as part of its fund raising process.

Nokia Siemens Networks was given a US$7 billion pact to organize around 40,000 cellular base stations for the network. This will cover 92% of the U.S. population by 2015.

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New MVNO launched targeting Chinese Americans

On 10.05.06, In Mobile, By Editor

A new MVNO targeting Chinese-Americans officially launched today, offering cheap international calls to Asia and a Razr phone with menus in Chinese.

Red Pocket Mobile soft-launched about two weeks ago, according to Max Smetannikov, vice president of business development for Global Advertising Strategies, which specializes in helping MVNOs market to multicultural groups. At the Informa MVNO Sustainable Business Models conference, Smetannikov said that Red Pocket would begin a major marketing push in Chinese-language media today. He added that out of “several thousand” handsets that already had been provided to distributors in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, “half the product is gone.”

Smetannikov said that the 4 million Chinese-Americans in the United States make an estimated 150 million minutes worth of calls home each month, and that the demographic is particularly well educated and wealthy. Red Pocket will be a prepaid service that allows its customers to directly dial international calls with no extra steps. Red Pocket will let its customers “use a cell phone like a normal person and call internationally and not lose your shirt,” Smetannikov said.

The service will run on Cingular Wireless L.L.C.’s GSM network and is offering two Motorola Inc. handsets, the Razr (for $200) and the C139 (for $50). Both phones will come with factory-installed Chinese menus, and customers will be able to get mobile content in Chinese, Smetannikov added.

The company is named after the traditional red envelope in which the Chinese distribute money to friends and family during New Year celebrations. The company’s logo is based on a stamp that, up until recently, Chinese citizens used in lieu of a signature, according to Smetannikov.

Red Pocket Mobile’s goal is to have about 100,000 subscribers by the end of 2008.

Since we’ve already got Helio, which is nominally targeting Korean Americans (and trendy youth in general),it makes sense to have an MVNO for the much larger and more influential Chinese American demographic.

Source: RCR News

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