Mobile in Korea

Currently, there are three mobile operators in Korea, SK Telecom, KT and LG Telecom. A new mobile operator will launch their mobile service in July of next year. KMI (Korea Mobile Internet) submitted the application for providing their own service to the Korean Communications Commission on 11th June.

The biggest mobile operator in Korea, SK Telecom announced 57% decline in its third-quarter profit. The higher marketing costs seems to be a root cause of the decline.

SK Telecom has competed with KTF in order to attract customers with WCDMA(3G) service. SK Telecom has maintained its doninant position with market share of over 50%. However, SK Telecom has poured extraordinary marketing cost for attracting 3G service users. Although SK Telecom succeeded to defend its market position against KTF and LG Telecom, the total number of mobile services has not increased. Because most of 3G service users are not new users of mobile service but existing users who only change their mobile service from 2G to 3G.

The penetration rate of Korea's mobile market is already over 90%. Additional growth in the domestic market might be not expected any more except for mobile data service area.

Please refer to the below table regarding SK Telecom's profit.

  A few days ago, I posted 'Auction Cracked by a Foreigner'. LGT was also cracked by a Korean blogger and apologized to subscribers for LGT's fault officialy. The blogger who cracked LGT made a web page which provided name, social security number and handset model of the subscribers. In a result, 370 subscribers of LGT were exposed on the blog.

  The below is a captured picture of the web page which provided the information of subscribers. If a phone number was input on the quiry box and submit, the detail information about the phone number were showed on the page.

  I've been to WiMAX Forum Congress Asia 08 from 8th April to 10th April. I am wondering whether mobile broadband based on WiMAX (and LTE) will succeed in developed markets (in terms of mobile service) including Korea, Hong Kong and Japan.

  In the Congress, many participants from emerging markets including India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan are expecting that WiMAX will perform an important role for roll-out of broadband service. The penetration rates of fixed broadband service in emerging markets are very low under 10%. The providers think the broadband service is a great opportunity for growth and are trying to expand the service through their countries. Because they did not have fixed broadband infrastructure like fiber optic and copper line, they must invest much money in order to provide the broadband service. In this case, mobile or nomadic broadband using WiMAX is more efficient than fixed broadband using fiber optic or copper line. Moreover, some countries including Malaysia and Indonesia consist of many islands. It is very difficult for them to build fixed infrastructures over the whole countries.

  However, developed countries including Korea and Japan have different environments. For example, the penetration rate of broadband service in Korea is over 80%. In addition, there are so many PC cafe providing computer and fast speed internet connection. Usual Korean people might have no needs for mobile broadband. Because the environment of internet connection is well developed, they do not like taking a laptop when they are out of home and do not want to subscribe the mobile broadband service like KT WiBro and SKT T LOGIN. Even if WiBro service was launched in 2006, the number of subscribers is only 150,000 up to now. A pay Wi-Fi service, Netspot, which is a simmilar to mobile broadband service, is not also evaluated as a successful service in Korea. (It has attracted about 400,000 subscribers since 2002.)

  KT is focusing on another business opportunities using WiBro. KT also thinks that it is difficult for WiBro to expand with only mobile broadband service which provides an internet connection with usb modem or PCMCIA card. KT is trying to develop various mobile service using WiBro. For example, mobile education service was launched for undergraduate students of SKKU. KT announced today, that a full browsing service on a smart phone will be provided. However, I am not sure that the efforts and strategies for expansion of WiBro service would give a great result to KT.

  I am agree that many innovative mobile services like full browsing, mobile education and mobile health service must attract users for WiBro in order to succeed in developed markets. However, why do we have to consider WiBro as the network for the services? There are alternatives like HSDPA and CDMA. LGT succeeded to provide full-browsing service using CDMA EV-DO Rev.A and already attracted 50,000 users for 15 days after launch.

  I am wondering how WiBro or WiMAX service can survive in developed markets.
 

  Korean mobile operators start to open their mobile network. SKT, KTF and LGT have separate mobile data services and brands. If a user push the hot key for data service on handset, each user connects to a separate mobile portal belong to each mobile operator which the user subscribes to.

  However, Korean government has insisted that users can choose the initial page of mobile data service and has requested the mobile operator to open their mobile network. Since last year, SK Telecom has provided 'open i' service which is a gateway site connecting between SKT proprietary portal (NATE) and independant mobile sites belong to various players including web portals, newspaper companies and broadcasting companies. Users search a specific mobile site and connect to independant mobile site easily using 'open i' service.

  'open i' service is based on 'WINC' service initiated by Korean government. (Pleas refer to the link for details about WINC) Users connect to an independant mobile site with a number provided by WINC service. If an user knows the number like domain address of web site for a mobile site which the user wants to connect to, the user only inputs the number and pushes the hot key for mobile data service.  Korean government developed the number (WINC) for easy connection of independant mobile site, but it is hard for WINC service to be expanded because users must memorize each number in order to connect to independant mobile sites. 'open i' helps users connect to independant mobile site easily through providing search engine and directories which classified various independant sites. KTF and LGT do not provide the service simmilar to SKT's 'open i' yet.

  LG Telecom launched a full browsing service using EV-DO Rev.A. Even if about 10 days have passed after LG Telecom launched this service in 4th April, LG Telecom attracted new 4,000 subscribers a day on average.

  There are two barriers preventing the expansion of mobile data service on handset.

  The first one is data traffic price. If someone wants to use data service with handset, he usually has paid about $25 per month. However, LG Telecom started to provide data service at an affordable price of $6 per month. It is by far the cheapest data service option for user of mobile data service in Korea.

 The second one is the walled garden policy of korean mobile operators. Mobile internet services in Korea are usually provided in a closed portal of each operator. (SK Telecom : Nate / KTF : Magic N / LG Telecom : Ez i) In this environment, the limited services like ring back tone and ringtone have gotten popularity. Although Korean government and  many internet portals including Naver and Yahoo have pushed mobile operators to open their mobile internet service, they have kept the closed services. LG Telecom started to attack other operators through opening data service with full browsing service and users are welcoming the change of mobile data service.

  Since last year, SK Telecom and KTF have been investing to establish the WCDMA service allowing video calling services and spending their efforts in order to make this service as a killer app of 3G. However, the full browsing service is more possible to become a killer app of 3G.