SK, KT plan assault on Asian markets

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SK, KT plan assault on Asian markets

Finding it tough to cultivate more business in the overgrown domestic market, Korea’s top two telecommunications operators, SK Telecom and KT Corp., are seeking fertile ground for expansion in Asia. SK Telecom, whose revenue exceeded 10 trillion won ($10.2 billion) for the first time last year, has designated the global market as a key engine of growth for the year ahead. SK’s chairman, Chey Tae-won, its chief executive, Kim Shin-bae, and its new business division head, Seo Jin-ho, are spearheading the company’s push into global markets, which will focus largely on Vietnam and China. Mr. Kim said, “We will spend 300 billion won to extend our mobile communication service across the whole of Vietnam.” SK has already sent five workers to staff its new branch in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi; within the next few months, the mobile firm is to launch its wireless Internet business in China. Meanwhile, KT, with its mobile-sector subsidiary KTF Co., is focusing on extending its reach in Northeast Asia. Chief executive Cho Young-chu said that KT is to install a next-generation mobile service, dubbed W-CDMA, linking Korea, China and Japan. Mobile phones fitted with W-CDMA will transmit data up to 40 times faster than current Internet-enabled handsets. Late last year, KTF began its push into Japan with the sale of a 10-percent stake in the company to Japanese telecommunication giant NTT DoCoMo. Early this month, staff members from KT and KTF began frequent visits to Japan to discuss communication network, service and technology sectors with their Japanese counterparts. Assuming the Chinese government gives the go ahead for W-CDMA, mobile handset makers from the three Asian countries will start co-developing phones for the service, according to KTF. by Lee Weon-ho, Seo Ji-eun
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