KT chairman named as board member of GSMA
Lee Suk-chae KT chairman
Ha Sung-min SKT CEO
By Kim Yoo-chul
KT CEO and Chairman Lee Suk-chae has been appointed as a board member of the GSM Association, KT said in a statement, Thursday.
The appointment comes as the company is accelerating efforts to discover its next cash-generating sources away from its heavy dependence on the saturated telecom market.
``I am honored to be named as a member of the GSM Association. KT will actively respond to the changing global telecom market through enhanced communication channels with CEOs of global telecom carriers. I will directly handle it,’’ Lee was quoted as saying in a press release.
The GSM Association consists of of mobile carriers and related firms devoted to supporting the standardizing, deployment and promotion of the GSM mobile telephone system.
Spanning more than 220 countries, it unites some 800 of the world’s mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile environment including handsets.
Its current membership includes KT, its main local rival SK Telecom, Verizon Wireless of the United States, China Unicom, NTT DoCoMo of Japan and 20 other mobile carriers, according to the statement.
SK Telecom CEO Ha Sung-min was re-appointed as a board member. Ha will remain in the position for the next two years.
``With closer collaboration with the GSM Association, SK will try hard to give new and distinctive value to our customers,’’ Ha was quoted as saying in a press release by SK Telecom.