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SK Telecom Living Testimony to Korea's Mobile Growth

By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
SK Telecom, Korea's leading mobile carrier, will announce on Monday its new vision to evolve into a genuine world wireless powerhouse, marking its 20th anniversary and standing tall as a living testimony to Korea¡¯s breathtaking growth in mobile telecommunications.

Newly-elected president Kim Shin-bae, who took the helm in a March 12 shareholders' meeting, is expected to stress nurturing next-generation growth engines to further propel the mobile giant's expansion.

It is the third time SK Telecom declared its vision following ``Move 21'' in 1995, just after the company acquired the Korea Mobile Telecommunications Corp. (KMT) and ``Vision 2010'' in 2000.

The new vision will be about SK Telecom's target of evolving into a genuine colossal in the global mobile market by fostering a flurry of converging services and by aggressively tapping overseas markets.

During the 10 years after privatization, SK Telecom has played the role of global leader in the code division multiple access (CDMA) technology and set the trend in the local mobile telephony market.

As a result, SK Telecom accounts for over 50 percent of the nation's 34 million cell phone subscribers and boasted an upside of 9 trillion won in annual sales as of the end of last year.

From Minnow to Juggernaut

It was on March 29, 1984, exactly 20 years ago today when Korea's first-ever wireless telephony company _ Korea Mobile Telecommunications Services _ came into existence as an affiliate of Korea Telecom Authority (now KT).

The company started with only 32 staff members and a capitalization of 250 million won. In the first year, the start-up recorded just 390 million won in turnover with in-car telephone services.

In 20 years, however, the minnow player has expanded by leaps and bounds to the unarguable top wireless operator in Korea and one of the leading mobile carriers in the world.

Last year, SK Telecom netted 1.94 trillion won in profit on 9.52 trillion won of sales. As of the end of February, the company retained 18.48 million subscribers, carving out 53.41 percent of the total market.

The CDMA technology, offspring of the U.S.-based chip maker Qualcomm, is building blocks in SK Telecom's success story, as the company continued a streak in launching the world's first commercial CDMA services at every level.

After kicking off the CDMA services in 1996, SK Telecom surprised the world twice afterwards by embarking on CDMA2000 1x in 2000 and EV-DO (evolution data optimized) two years later.

The technological edge propelled the company to the rapid growth. From 1 million subscribers in 1995, the customer base has extended ever to 5 million in 1998 and 10 million just a year after. The company seeks to break through a 20-million plateau soon.

To pave the way for the scheme and beyond, SK Telecom has tried to find out new growth momentum especially as the conventional voice-call market shows signs of slowing down of late.

Promising Businesses

On the strength of its core competency in the telecom network, SK Telecom eyes several convergence services like portable Internet, mobile financial offerings and wireless broadcasting.

The company has been pioneering in mobile finance through the Moneta brand, which includes a credit card function and mobile bill services, and launched mobile banking services in a full-fledged manner early this month under business alliance with Woori, Shinhan, Chohung and Hana banks.

As an eventual form of a finance-telecom fusion drive, SK Telecom is looking to upgrade handsets to personal information centers by integrating credit cards and communication cards to Moneta-enabled phones.

SK Telecom has also been at the forefront in landing the pocket multimedia era through the satellite digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB), which allows handset carriers to enjoy broadcasting on the move through their handheld receivers.

The company launched a satellite for the DMB on March 13 and plans to kick-stark the mobility-specific broadcasting from this July through its affiliate TU Media for the first time in the world.

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03-28-2004 18:17

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