WiBro is the made-in-Korea technology for portable Internet. It allows people to use wireless Internet without disruption in a vehicle running 120km/h.
WiBro attracted special attention as it was developed by home-grown technologies following CDMA service. After two years of service, however, the results are rather shameful. There are only two service providers, KT and SK Telecom, after Hanaro Telecom unprecedentedly decided to give back the service license awarded by the government. Moreover, SK Telecom is not that enthusiastic about the service for fear that WiBro would have negative impact on its mobile service. KT is no different. It has subscribed less than 200,000 people to the service.
Against this background, the government decided to allow WiBro service providers to offer voice services. The government decision is seen to encourage KT and SK Telecom to increase investment, instead of being marketing-obsessed.
WiBro offering voice service means that there will be competition between WiBro and existing mobile services. Already, KT successfully demonstrated WiBro based Internet phone service. The company can provide the voice service anytime upon the government approval.
In case that WiBro based Internet phone proliferates, the landscape in the industry will be changed forever because it offers short, long distance, as well as international calls at far cheaper prices.
Of course, WiBro coverage should be expanded first and not small amount of money is required to establish infrastructure to make it happen.
At least, SK Telecom would be obviously not in favor of the situation. It might think that WiBro-based Internet phone is a critical blow to its profits. It would do everything it can do to prevent it.
One of the arguments of SK Telecom is that allowing WiBro Internet phone is unfair because it paid astronomical amount of money to get the frequency band it now uses while WiBro providers are provided with the frequency at a tenth of the amount SK Telecom paid, or 100 billion won.
KT also has its reason to oppose WiBro Internet phone, though it is a little bit complex. WiBro voice service might be good for KT because KT picked up WiBro as one of its new engine for growth. At the same time, however, the service can reduce the sales of KTF, its mobile service affiliate. Therefore, KT is in catch 22 especially at a time when it takes steps to merge KTF.
Another factor is the speculation that WiBro would fail to mainstream in the global market. Though it is likely to be selected as one of 4G standards, it lags behind Europe-led LTE (Long Term Evolution) system. Many of major mobile operators around the world had selected LTE as their next service platform.
Comments