SEOUL, South Korea-Korean mobile telecom carriers are looking to stake out the biggest share in the fast-growing wireless Internet and data market, shifting from a voice-oriented strategy.
The explosion of the Internet and mobile-phone use is driving the convergence of the two high-tech media, offering a variety of new services, such as multimedia content, stock quotes, online games and wireless e-mail.
The five Korean mobile-phone operators launched their wireless Internet services late last year, staging a massive marketing campaign to woo subscribers to mobile Internet services.
To strengthen digital content for the wireless Internet, the mobile carriers are busy forming strategic alliances with telecom solution providers and digital content providers.
SK Telecom is now promoting its wireless data and Internet service named n.TOP, which is based on Wireless Application Protocol (WAP).
SK Telecom has around 500,000 subscribers-out of its nearly 10.5 million total subscribers-for the relatively new service, which provides data messaging service, location guidance and simplified Web surfing.
“The priority for mobile carriers is to increase the wireless Internet users to a critical mass level and then make high-powered handsets available,” said Kim Soo-il, deputy senior manager of the wireless service planning team at SK Telecom.
Kim said the number of mobile Internet users is estimated to reach 10 million in Korea by year-end, a trend that will drastically reshape the revenue structure of mobile-phone operators.
In early February, Shinsegi Telecomm forged an alliance with NetiMore, an online promotion agency, to develop a wireless lottery solution for its mobile Internet package, itouch 017.
Shinsegi also joined hands with Nextel, a Korean Internet solution provider, to introduce a wireless geography information service for about 100,000 Shinsegi mobile Internet subscribers.
Said Kim Young-sam, assistant manager of the Shinsegi Internet marketing team: “Japan, which started to promote the mobile Internet solution last January, attracted 5 million wireless Internet subscribers last year, and Korean mobile operators combined are expected to jack up the figure to 10 million by the end of this year.”
KT Freetel, a mobile-phone subsidiary of Korea Telecom, recently revamped its wireless Internet service named PersNet, which attracted 500,000 subscribers as of the end of January. The company plans to increase its mobile Internet subscriber base to 3.5 million by the end of this year.
“Freetel is reconfiguring the PersNet service to woo teenage users, who are identified as the chief early adopters of the mobile Internet service,” said Chon Dae-jin, manager of the Internet business team at Freetel.
Hansol M.Com, formerly known as Hansol PCS, is also targeting teens, who carve out 50 percent of the total 70,000 Hansol wireless Internet users.
“Now that teen subscribers are eager to surf the Web via a mobile phone and exchange short messages, the company is focusing on the solutions for cyber community, blind date and online chatting,” noted Choe Jong-chan, director of the Internet planning team at Hansol.
LG Telecom, which unveiled the wireless Internet service named ez Web late last year, recently signed a strategic alliance with Interpark, an e-commerce provider, in a bid to introduce a mobile shopping service through which subscribers can scan product items and instantly make orders.
“The market for wireless Internet and data service is growing rapidly, and the pace is expected to quicken further as new handset models with better transmission function are hitting the stores,” said Lee Chung-hwan, deputy general manager of the data business team at LG.
“While it’s difficult to charge for a service on the Web which is widely viewed free, a mobile phone data service is a different story,” Lee added.
