2 Posts about 'LG U+'
The impacts of unlimited data plan :: 2010/10/20 13:16
Since SK Telecom announced to introduce unlimited data plans in the last July, the other mobile operators such as KT and LG U+ also followed SK Telecom. All mobile operators in Korea provide customers with unlimited data plans.
This change allowed smartphone subscribers to use diverse mobile application without any concern about additional fees. For instance, in my case, I enjoy listening to musics on my way to office every morning by using a streaming music service of Melon. Additionally, I sometimes use the tethering my smartphone, Galaxy S, provides, checking my e-mail and enjoying Web-surfing.
According to SK Telecom, around 80% of total smartphone users (over two million) subscribed the unlimited data plans and average new customers of 17,000 subscribes the unlimited plans everyday. Additionally, around 0.9 million people visited T Store, an mobile application market SK Telecom provides, and download various applications. The unlimited data plans initiated to change the people's behaviors to use mobile services.
However, there are also some concerns about the unlimited data plans. Many people sometimes complain that they sometimes experience the bad qualities of mobile voice services. Even though mobile operators insist that the increasing mobile traffic does not make any impact on the quality of voice service, many experts indicate that the unlimited data plans might be the root cause of lowering the qualities of voice services. According to the Korea Communication Commission, the total traffic of 3G data increased by about 200% compared with the same period of the last year. In July, KT recorded 344% increase, SK Telecom did 232% and LG U+ did 114%.
Recently, other global mobile operators including Verizon and T-Mobile announced that they would stop the unlimited data plans. However, the Korean mobile operators chose the opposite strategic direction. They seem to need alternative ways to compensate the defects withing several months.
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SKT’s breakthrough for data business leadership :: 2010/07/17 18:18
On 14th July, SK Telecom announced new policies regarding unlimited data plans and mobile VoIP. 
SKT’s CEO is announcing several changes regarding their service at SKT's headquarter building.Many smart-phone users have complained SKT’s operational directions for several years and praised KT by the reason that KT tries a lot of innovations, including launch of iPhone in Korea and offering of their Wi-Fi network to KT’s users. In order to break the prejudice, SK Telecom tried to change many small things. For instance, in January 2010, SK Telecom announced that they would install Wi-Fi network and open the netwok to all people, including SK Telecom’s subscribers and competitors’ subscribers. However, these small tries were not able to change the negative atmosphere surrounding SK Telecom among smart-phone users.This time, SK Telecom made a big decision. SK Telecom decided to allow customers use their 3G mobile network (WCDMA) in case that customers subscribe price plans which monthly fee are over 55,000 won - around 50 USD. SKT’s new decision created a sensation among Korean smart-phone users. At many online communities regarding smart-phone, many people acclaimed SK Telecom’s new decision. Globally, most of mobile operators are reluctant to provide unlimited data plans because this plans might cause severe overloads on their mobile networks. Before SKT’s decision, all Korean mobile operators also had policies that make customers use mobile data services within limited network traffics. LG U+ (former LG Telecom) has provided monthly amount of data traffic the most aggressively. KT has supplemented customers’ data usages with their Wi-Fi network and is maintaining a policy to use both 3G mobile network and Wi-Fi network in order to meet their customers’ data usage needs. In early this year, SK Telecom also seemed to pursue a similar strategy to utilize both 3G network and Wi-Fi network. However, SK Telecom seems to turn their direction of strategy completely with this week’s announcement. I think that SKT’s new strategic direction will make its competitors such as KT and LG U+ be worried about their strategies about mobile data services. I think that it is very hard for KT to make similar strategies, because KT does not have sufficient network capacity to cover their all subscribers’ usage. Reactions of KT and LG U+ will be very interesting point in the half of this year.As well as unlimited usage of 3G mobile network, SK Telecom allowed mobile VoIP on WCDMA network. This change is evaluated as an innovative decision. Because allowing mobile VoIP might cause cannibalization to SK Telecom’s voice revenue. Since KT launched their new brand for 3G service in March of 2007, SK Telecom has maintained defensive stances regarding disruptive services. Many people criticized SKT’s defensive strategies. However, I think SK Telecom might get out of the passive images by this new plan about mobile VoIP. In addition, Korean people seem to be able to use Skype or Google Voice on their smart-phones and save their communication costs. I hope SK Telecom’s changes can become an inflection point of evolution and development of Korean mobile industry. As many people use mobile data services freely, more innovative mobile data services can appear in this dynamic market.
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