SK Telecom gains more LTE momentum
By Kim Yoo-chul
SK Telecom, the nation’s biggest telecom operator, is seeing an uprising momentum in the 4G network business, which is regarded as the next-generation telecom service.
SK Telecom is focusing on the transformation of its business to long-term evolution, or the LTE platform, because the top carrier believes that this transformation is lucrative and has the potential to be a major differentiator in the high-growth Android market.
``We don’t have any big questions that 4G-based LTE will become the dominant competitive technology in the mobile industry by the end of 2012,’’ said company spokeswoman Kim Ji-won.
SK Telecom, which has started its LTE service in July, released various billing packages for LTE phones and has been selling Samsung’s LTE-equipped models from October.
``The company is running various promotional events including the deduction of registration fee by more than half and the addition to use more data-downloading services,’’ said Kim.
South Korea had more than 20 million smartphone customers as of the end of the first week of November after the nation got Apple’s iPhone 3GS two years ago, according to data from the Korea Communications Commission (KCC).
``Within 40-day after the LTE service was launched, the number of local LTE customers exceeded 350,000 and we don’t have big questions that the numbers will reach 1 million very soon,’’ said an official from the commission, Monday.
SK Telecom, which aims to get 500,000 LTE subscribers within this year, had 220,000 LTE customers by the end of last week from 120,000 last month, according to the company.
``There are more requests from new customers about LTE-support phones. As far as I know, SK Telecom is adding some 13,000 new LTE customers on a daily basis,’’ said an official who runs a small phone-selling outlet in downtown Seoul.
The carrier, which has so far been released five LTE-equipped smartphones that include Samsung Electronics Galaxy S II, is planning to introduce Galaxy Note and Galaxy 8.9-inch tablet both will support the LTE networks by end of 2011.
While mass migration to 4G LTE will take some time, it seems also clear that the industry is moving in the direction, and that puts SK Telecom exactly where it wants to be again in the mainstream of consumer demand with an industry-leading cost structure.
Market analysts and SK officials are consistently claiming that with the efficiency gained in 4G LTE environment, it will get a chance for churn out cost reduction and margin expansion through with a focus on LTE by all local carriers, including its biggest local rival KT.
``This is the right opportunity we’ve planned for. SK Telecom sees it happening today, and we believe it will cement our cost leadership position,’’ said the spokeswoman, adding 4G LTE will revolutionize the wireless experience for subscribers, and it will open new potential avenues of growth.