Carriers Open Mobile Internet Networks
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
Korea's mobile-phone operators have been hogging their data networks like a fat kid with a candy jar. However, with the government pressing them to lower their boundaries in an effort to initiate a mobile Web explosion that has yet to happen, the wireless carriers are beginning to show a reluctant commitment toward openness.
The Korea Communications Commission (KCC), the country's broadcasting and telecommunications regulator, has ordered KTF, the No. 2 cell phone operator behind SK Telecom, to open its mobile Internet network sometime during the second-half of the year. This will enable KTF users to move beyond the company's walled garden of data services and access other Web pages through their handsets.
KTF's opening up of its mobile Internet network was one of the preconditions imposed by the FTC in allowing KT, the country's biggest telephone and Internet company, to absorb its wireless unit. The combined company will be launched on June 1.
Following the completion of the merger, the bulked-up KT will be required to submit a plan for opening the wireless data network within 60 days, KCC said.
SK Telecom, the wireless king, was forced to open its mobile Internet network last year as a condition for acquiring a controlling stake in fixed-line operator Hanaro Telecom, which is now SK Broadband.
So SK Telecom subscribers get to try mobile Web services other than ``Nate,'' just as KTF users who are no longer limited to the ``Magic-N'' mobile Web portal.
LG Telecom, the smallest mobile phone carrier, said it is also planning to open its data network, although declined to give a specific date.
An opened mobile Internet environment may offer new opportunities for Internet companies, such as NHN, the operator of Naver (www.naver.com), and Daum (www.daum.com), both of which have already announced aspirations for extending their tentacles to the mobile market.
Software developers could also benefit, as they will get to provide and market their products to a larger audience, instead of delivering separate content for different mobile operators and Internet companies.
However, the effects of the open network are expected to take hold sometime beyond next year, as the KCC is allowing the wireless carriers more time to develop new handsets for the opened data network.
So it won't be until June when SK Telecom releases new handsets with the changed Internet access systems, as the company was given a 10-month period to develop handsets.
KT was given a nine-month period, which means that the new handsets will come around January next year.
For existing mobile phone models, KT has to change their Internet access systems within three months.