SKT to launch high-speed service three months early

SK Telecom Co., Korea’s top mobile service operator, plans to launch nationwide service of its 3.5-generation (3.5G) network in March, three months earlier than scheduled, a top executive said yesterday.
“We will complete the establishment of our nationwide network for high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) by the end of March,” SK Telecom’s vice president Lee Bang-hyung said at the tech show 3GSM World Conference 2007.
HSDPA is widely known as a 3.5G mobile communications technology, promising faster and more seamless data transfer speed. It also allows individuals to use multimedia features such as video telephony.
SK Telecom has said it will commence the service across the nation by the first half of this year. The earlier launch is intended to counter mounting competition from its smaller rival KTF Co., which is poised to start the nationwide service in March.
SK Telecom has invested 1.8 trillion won ($1.9 billion) in building the network since 2003 and plans to spend an additional 600 billion won this year, the company said.
Lee said that SK Telecom will introduce handsets tailored only to the HSDPA service in May after two months of service-optimizing efforts.
Meanwhile, SK Telecom said it has joined the Bridge Mobile Alliance, a group that consists of Asia’s top nine mobile carriers including Singapore’s Singtel and Malaysia’s Maxis.
SK Telecom’s entry will help the firm increase cooperation with Asia’s leading mobile service operators in diverse fields.