 Local regulations on location-based services are providing further complications for Apple, which is looking to debut its iPhone here. / Korea Times |
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The iPhone buzz is getting old and tiring even though Apple has yet to sell a single handset here. South Korean tech geeks have been waiting dreadfully for the iconic ``smart'' phone to reach local shores, but cautious mobile-phone operators and uptight government regulators are blamed for repeated delays in the iPhone's debut.
The country claims itself as the mobile capital of the world, and yet it has managed to fall behind nations such as Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea in securing the planet's hottest mobile device.
Local mobile operators such as KT and SK Telecom had been worried that the iPhone might challenge its existing business models. The handset enables users to browse the Web on Wi-Fi networks and download software from Apple's App Store, which would allow consumers to break out from the Korean operators' data service chain.
However, the carriers have come around, albeit reluctantly, to admit that distinctive devices like the iPhone could help them gain better returns on their massive investment in mobile data networks.
KT, which trails SK Telecom in the mobile market, has been the more aggressive of the two, promising its customers an iPhone release during the second half of this year.
Just when the industry thought that iPhone had finally been cleared for the Korean market, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), the country's broadcasting and telecommunications regulator, put another stop, expressing concerns over the handset's capabilities for location-based services.
The Korean law mandates that companies providing location-based information to their customers must acquire a separate license. There is no written provision that the location-based service providers should base their operators on a local server, but the government so far has been asking the companies to do so.
KCC commissioners are still debating whether Apple would need a separate license as a location-based information operator here, as the iPhone handsets support location-based functions for digital maps, social networking services and other applications.
``Some of the KCC commissioners think that Apple should gain approval as a location-based information provider, while others claim that that would be too excessive,'' said a KCC official.
``There are no clear-cut standards on the type of location-based services that the operator would be required to provide on a local server. However, the type of information gathered by the iPhone isn't likely to be ruled critical enough to mandate Apple to install a local server, although we need more time to reach the conclusion.''
The continuing discussions at the KCC have prevented KT and Apple from agreeing on the volume of iPhone devices released here, as well as the size of handset subsidies provided to consumers.
Regulations on location-based services also forced a late debut of Google Maps, Google's digital map service based on satellite photographs.
To provide the service in Korea, Google had to acquire a local server, as the law provides clearer restrictions on the export of digital maps. On the other hand, Nokia's refusal to have a local server forced local operators to strip the navigation service applications on the company's 6210 handsets released in Korea.
``Smart phones, which provide Web browsing and multimedia features atop of voice, are like personal computers, so there is no way to monitor every foreign Web site the users will log onto,'' a KCC official said.
``However, when a mobile operator is releasing a foreign-made handset that could wire the information of Koreans to foreign servers, we need to look into the possible risks.''
The latest iPhone handset comes in with mobile map software, based on global positioning system (GPS) functions and a built-in compass, which collects the access information of local Wi-Fi and mobile telephony networks and beams them back to iPhone handsets.
Apple is not directly involved in collecting the information, and instead relies on the technology of Skyhook Wireless, a U.S.-based Wi-Fi positioning system provider.
Since the data gathered by Skyhook Wireless doesn't include the personal information of subscribers, critics argue that the KCC debates over regulating Apple as a location-based service provider are illogical.
thkim@koreatimes.co.kr
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