South Korea

Samsung launches Anycall Clutch (SPH-W9500) for South Korean market

On 03.08.10, In Mobile Phones, By Editor

Samsung has launched a handset, Anycall Clutch (SPH-W9500) exclusively for South Korean market. Anycall Clutch looks like a variant of the S7070 Diva phone and has the same quilted back. The distinct feature of the model is its diamond-shaped home button.

The set is an all-touchscreen device with a 3.2-inch display, 3-megapixel camera with “3D motion picture feature”, 1.3-megapixel camera for video calls, 3G connectivity (HADPA), GPS, T-DMB mobile TV receiver, SOS function, Bluetooth, e-dictionary and a microSD expansion slot that works with cards of up to 16GB. The 960mAh battery offers enough charge for up to 8 hours of talk and 500 hours of standby time.

The TouchWIZ 2.0 of Samsung is used for all the interaction providing users with a quick way to access the key phone features as well as popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Lady UI is the name of the UI variant on the Clutch and it comes with preloaded widget for party planning and some diet assistant app.

The Samsung Anycall Clutch will be available in three shades including Silver, Pink and Black on KT for 600,000 won, which is about $523.

Tagged with: 3G connectivity • Bluetooth • GPS • HADPA • handset • Korea • LAN • megapixel • Mobile TV • Samsung • SOS • SOS Function • South Korea • South Korean • T-DMB • Touchscreen • Touchscreen device • TouchWIZ • TouchWiz 2.0 • twitter • Video Call • video calls • Widget

Samsung unveils new Samsung Jet 2

On 02.26.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news A new mobile phone has been added by world No.2 handset maker, Samsung in its Jet series roster, the Samsung Jet 2.

An enticing 3.1-inch 16M WVGA AMOLED display that offers users the most vivid and colorful touch experience is one of the unique features of this handset.

A powerful 800MHz application processor provides unprecedented speed and unrivaled performance while an English dictionary and an advanced Media Browser enables users to close several widgets at once through motion control.

Google Push Email is an additional feature and it also allows media content sharing technology among DLNA certified devices.

Tagged with: Asia Pacific • Google • Mobile • Samsung • South Korea

Worldwide mobile subscriptions to reach 5b in 2010

On 02.26.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The rise in the number mobile phone users will continue through 2010, according to a recent International Telecommunication Union (ITU) report. It has also been predicted that number of mobile subscriptions will surpass the 5 billion mark sometime this year if the current rate of growth continues.

400 million more mobile subscriptions will be there in 2010 as compared to last year. China and India will emerge as the biggest contributor to this rapid increase in the subscribers. While the developed countries have a penetration rate of almost 100%, the developing countries have just 57 percent of its people hooked to mobile phones.

Most advanced countries in telecoms and the Internet terms in 2008 has been named as Sweden, Luxembourg, Denmark, Netherlands, Iceland, Switzerland, Norway and the UK (in Europe), and South Korea and Japan in Asia.

Tagged with: Denmark • ASIA • China • Europe • India • Japan • Korea • Luxembourg • National Telecom • Netherland • Netherlands • Norway • South Korea • Sweden • Switzerland • UK

Nokia considers opening a factory in Argentina

On 02.22.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Opening of a new handset factory in Argentina by Nokia is on the cards thus, taking its tally of own-factories to ten worldwide. The handset production of the company is being moved to lower cost countries and the move came under controversy when it closed its Bochum plant in Germany.

According to Nokia spokesman Tapani Kaskinen, Nokia is investigating the possibility to arrange mobile device assembly in Argentina.

The company currently has ten factories in nine countries: Brazil, China, Finland, Hungary, India, Mexico, Romania, South Korea and recently it announced its plans to cut around 12% of its workforce at its Finnish factory as it switched the facility from low-cost handset production towards higher margin smartphones.

Tagged with: Argentina • ASIA • Brazil • China • Europe • Finland • Germany • Hungary • India • Korea • Mexico • Mobile Device • Nokia • North America • Oman • Romania • South America • South Korea

SK Telecom to launch LG Waffle, LG-SV770 handset (South Korea)

On 02.20.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: LG Waffle, LG-SV770 handset manufactured by LG electronics will be launched by South Korea’s SK Telecom. The handset is a basic slider phone with a cool design weighs 95 grams and is 13.5mm thick.

There is 2.4 inch TFT QVGA display and is powered by a 900 mAh battery and it also incorporated with certain features like 2GB of NAND Flash memory, 1GB SDRAM, a microSD card slot and maps of the underground along with a 2MP camera to enjoy with the nice snaps.

Not to forget the FM radio for all the music lovers and Bluetooth to cater to data transfer. No announcement has been made till now regarding the price of the handset.

Tagged with: 2G • ASIA • Bluetooth • Launch • LG • LG Electronics • MicroSD card • SK Telecom • South Korea

SK Telecom, KT increase investment in WiBro

On 02.16.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The investments in WiBro services has been planned to be expanded by South Korean communications firms SK Telecom and KT plan. KRW 140 billion this year and KRW 160 billion in 2011 will be invested by SK Telecom while KT has also increased its WiBro investment plan to KRW 1.2 trillion, from an earlier projection of KRW 1.1 trillion by the end of 2011.

The announcement follows a previous announcement by KCC that would give spectrum in the 800/900 MHz band to the company that allocates a bigger budget for WiBro.

At present, WiBro is only available in and around capital Seoul and a few other cities

Tagged with: ASIA • KCC • KT • SK Telecom • South Korea • spectrum • WiBro

MWC2010: Samsung becomes the show stealer on the 1st day

On 02.16.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The biggest show of the telecom world, the Mobile World Congress for 2010, opened Monday in Barcelona. More than 1,300 companies attended the conference showcasing their latest products and technologies, apart from Nokia and Apple who were not present.

The absence of the world’s two biggest handset makers has given leverage to South Korea’s most powerful handset maker Samsung Electronics and telecom carriers such as SK Telecom and KT Corp who are making the most out of the biggest event.

While Samsung Electronics released its first phone equipped with its own mobile operating system called Bada, Korea’s top mobile carrier SK Telecom showed off its off mobile in vehicle (MIV), 3D switching, smart payment and ZigBee USIM technologies.

Tagged with: Apple • ASIA • bada • Barcelona • Europe • KT Corp • Mobile World Congress • MWC2010 • Nokia • Samsung • SK Telecom • South Korea • Spain • Zigbee

U Mobile’s 33% stake to be sold to STT (Malaysia)

On 02.05.10, In Mobile, By Editor

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.

Tagged with: ASIA • Japan • KT Corp • NTT DoCoMo • operator • Singapore • Singapore Technologies Telemedia • South Korea • StarHub • U Mobile

Motorola, Nokia sued by South Korean Agency

On 01.12.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Nokia, Motorola and several other mobile makers have been sued by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), South Korea’s state-run telecommunications research institute, over patent violations.

Patent complaints were filed by ETRI against a total of 22 cell phone makers last year. One additional suit was filed with a California court in August. Complaints have been made against violation of seven patents covering WCDMA technologies.

US$270 million is expected to be gained by the South Korean Agency in royalties if it wins the lawsuits.

Tagged with: ASIA • Motorola • Nokia • North America • South Korea • TOT • U.S • WCDMA

Further investments in Vietnam cancelled by SK Telecom

On 01.05.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Low profit and low subscriber growth made ¬South Korea’s SK Telecom to cease investing in its Vietnamese subsidiary. However, the company’s S-Fone partnership with Saigon Post andTelecommunication Corporation (SPT) will remain intact but S-Fone’s plans to deploy a 3G network will be endangered by the move.

An agreement to convert the cooperation into a formal joint venture is reported to be linked to the decision. This will be followed by selling a stake to South Korea-based private equity fund, Rutter Associates. With around 2.5 million customers by the end of last September, the operator has a market share of just 2.5%.

Tagged with: 3G • ASIA • operator • private equity fund • S-Fone • Saigon Post andTelecommunication Corporation • SK Telecom • South Korea • Vietnam