KT Corp demands global free Wi-Fi roaming
KT Corp has requested mobile operators to cooperate on establishing global free Wi-Fi roaming in a bid to ease the strain on their 3G networks.
According to Hyun-Myung Pyo, president of the South Korean operator’s mobile division, as of September, 67% of the operator’s mobile data traffic, around 2,500TB per month is offloaded onto Wi-Fi. Operators need to collaborate to build global free Wi-Fi roaming to offload 3G traffic.
Certainly, with the growth of M2M communications and the proliferation of mobile-capable devices expected to drive global mobile connections to 50 billion by 2020, operators will need to squeeze as much capacity as possible out of their networks.
As per Richard Yu, chief strategy and marketing officer of Huawei, capacity requirements will be huge. Mobile network capacity needs to increase by 500 times,” he said.
Yu explained that to do this, operators will need to make the transition to LTE, refarm 2G spectrum for mobile broadband services, and bolster their macro mobile networks with picocells, femtocells and other micro base station technologies. The number of connections will dramatically change the industry’s behavior.
KT Corp to launch Apple’s iPad this month (Korea)
South Korea’s largest fixed-line operator, KT Corp will roll out Apple Inc.’s iPad tablet computer in Korea soon this month.
According to the company’s statement, all models of iPad will be officially available via KT this month. The exact launching date will be determined later, it added. KT is also the sole provider of Apple’s popular iPhone 4 in the local market.
KT has required diversifying its offerings of mobile devices in a move to better compete with other operators in one of the world’s most saturated wireless markets.
The Korea Communications Commission, the country’s telecommunications regulator, last month reviewed and approved Apple’s request to sell iPad in the domestic market.
South Korea signs its First MVNO deal
South Korea’s second largest mobile phone operator, KT Corp, has inked a deal with three companies for its first MVNO services over its network.
It has been reported that KT has signed the deal with Entaz, a mobile content provider and with Free Telecom and Evergreen Mobile, both are prepaid service providers. KT will release its mobile network to these selected MVNOs so that they can operate its network communications to offer low-cost data and voice services, especially to consumers within a niche market
According to KT, they will help these companies to offer differentiated service and find untapped, niche markets so that together they can create a mobile ecosystem.
SK Telecom, a leading company in South Korea is yet to announce any MVNO deals.
KT to introduce per-second billing n South Korea
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Per-second billing will be introduced in South Korea by telecom operator KT Corp from December 2010. Earlier, similar service was announced by another telco SK Telecom. It has been claimed by KT Corp that change will enable savings for individuals of up to KRW8,000 (USD7.14) per year and expected the total annual savings to reach KRW128 billion.
The announcement for this kind of move was made by SKT in February 2010 and it was claimed at that time also that the move would save its subscribers up to KRW16.8 billion each month.
Till recently, the high cost of mobile services has been an area of concern for telecoms regulator the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) and its focus has been paid off the latest move by both KT and SKT to introduce the new strategy.
South Korea’s KT Corp net income doubles in Q1
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The net income of South Korea’s KT Corp for the three months ended March 31, 2010 more than doubled courtesy, completion of its merger with former mobile subsidiary KTF Corp. With 166.9% year-on-year increase, a net income of KRW372.5 billion has been posted by the operator compared to KRW139.6 million (USD335 million) in 1Q 2009.
Consolidated revenue has also been boosted by the integration of KTF, which rose by 73.9% against the same period a year earlier to KRW4.82 trillion, although revenues from fixed line voice services continued to fall, down 11.4% against 1Q 2009 at KRW1.12 trillion. While the number of VoIP subscribers increased by 290% to 1.97 million, the subscriber numbers declined by 9.5% to 17.6 million.
As far as wireless subscribers are concerned, KT’s total customer base rose by 5.6% to 15.37 million, with the number of fixed line broadband subscribers also climbing, at 7.09 million.
U Mobile’s 33% stake to be sold to STT (Malaysia)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A part of the stake is agreed to be sold by Berjaya Group, the single largest shareholder in U Mobile which is Malaysia’s fourth-placed mobile network operator. The stake will be acquired by Singapore Technologies Telemedia (STT) in a deal worth around MYR626 million (USD183.81 million). STT is one of the major shareholders in Singaporean telco StarHub. The talks between two companies began in September 2009.
U Mobile’s hunt for a strategic investor would be ended by the completion of the deal. U Mobile needed an investor since September 2009 when Japan’s NTT DoCoMo and South Korea’s KT Corp announced to sell their combined 33% stake in the Malaysian cellco for USD200 million.
FTC approves LG telecom’s merger plans in South Korea
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: LG telecom got antitrust approval from Fair Trade Commission (FTC) to merge its three local telecoms subsidiaries- LG Dacom, LG Telecom and LG Powercom.
The South Korean antitrust regulator was satisfied after examining the proposal saying that the tie up is unlikely to harm competition either in the fixed line or wireless sectors.
FTC also claimed that after the merger, LG units will compete more effectively with SK Telecom and KT Corp, the rival companies. FTC also said that it would not impose any conditions on the merger but at the same time, it will monitor the market conditions and take strict actions against any illegal activities.
According to the proposal, that got the approval of the LG shareholders, LG Telecom will absorb both LG Powercom and LG Dacom on 1 January 2010. KT Corp merger with its own wireless affiliate, KT Freetel, in June 2009 will follow this merger.
iPhone arrives in Korea. SKT and KT Corp discussing potential partnerships with Apple.
South Korea’s telecommunications regulator has given the green flag to apple to launch the iPhone in Korea.
The Korea Communications Commission made an exception to a rule that requires cellphones sold in the country to use domestic technology for location-based services. The commission’s action comes after months of consumer pressure.
This move is likely to create a stir among the dominant domestic manufacturers – Samsung and LG.
This development comes a month after Apple managed to clear its entry in China too. China Unicom, Apple’s partner in China will start selling the iPhone in the fourth quarter.
Lauren Kim, a spokesperson for SK Telecom Co. and Yeom Woo-jong, a spokesperson for KT Corp both admitted to being in discussion with Apple.
KT surprises with small profit on the back of cost cuts
South Korea’s dominant fixed line operator KT Corp posted an unexpected 4% rise in third quarter net profits, up to KRW317.6 billion (USD337 million), as it continued to cut labour and marketing costs. Revenues in the three months ended 30 September 2006 rose 2.1% to KRW3 trillion. Labour costs fell 3.1% to KRW604.9 billion after the company froze wages, cut employee benefits and reduced retirement provisions. However, competition is impacting on KT’s business as its share of South Korea’s lucrative broadband market shrank to 45.6% at the end of September, down from 51.8% a year earlier, according to government data. Revenues from internet access fell 4.9% to KRW604.6 billion, while wireline telephony turnover fell 0.5% to KRW1.08 trillion. Wireless revenue from subsidiary KTF Corp increased 7.3% to KRW356.2 billion; KTF reports its full financials separately.
Source- telegeography Wireless Mobile Telecom
