KT announced voice mobile phone service will be launched in November using WiBro technology as carrier. Network installations and infrastructure are already initiated. The homegrown long range and in-motion standard will deserve Korean market at cheaper rates for customers and aims to demonstrate positive results to back up its losing-ground worldwide struggle against LTE standard, said KT.

I suggest the underlying truth may be different. This blog has already covered here the governmental walled-garden strategy and pressures over Korean companies to champion WIBRO despite their increasing reluctance.  Contrary to publicly expressed motivations, this move have to be understand in a long-term strategic perspective and have little to do with WIBRO success - or rather lack of success -  abroad. KT is indeed preparing the up-coming IT disruption : the mobile VoIP.

<!–[if !vml]–><!–[endif]–> According to Gartner - and my own experience as consultant -,  VoIP is the inevitable evolution of mobile phone market. The American firm estimates that 50% of mobile voice traffic will be under VoIP in 2019.  Only the companies providing such services will have opportunities to make comfortable benefits from the global mobile voice market, whose size is today 692.6 $ billions. The key factor is a wide 4G coverage, LTE or WIBRO whatever, reached around 2017. Once this condition meet mobile VoIP will full bloom, wrote Gartner analyst Tole Hart.

Until now, mobile network operators was really suspicious of VoIP. Terms of service for mobile data  exclude VoIP use, which displease most competition authorities, even pushing  the European Commission to consider regulation issuance.

Because with mobile VoIP will come new competitors, some of them very threatening. VoIP Players such as Skype, already the first operator in international communication with a 8% marketshare, can leverage valuable expertise. Powerful Internet giants may enter as well : Gartner predicts than more a third of mobile voice traffic will go through portals and social networks like Google, Facebook, Myspace or Yahoo.

A business saying goes : “If your core product can be cannibalized, better will be by you”.  VoIP is not only a technical issue, it’s a disruption in the business model. The value will shift from the call itself to its integration in an ecosystem.

The report was released in May and predicted a quick stance change from MNOs. As Korea is known to be a window to the future, we hope KT decision will give us a glimpse to this radically different future and we will follow this topic thoroughly.

Among all modern banes, spam is one of the most irritating. The quarterly MacAfee ( link ) report indicates spams reached a new all-time record and accounts now for 92% of all-mail activity.  Most of them are caught in anti-spam filters and are invisible for users. But the report also highlights the link between spam creation and zombie-PCs. If the first is a mere annoyance, the second gives us an indicator on cybersecurity level. One month ago, after DDOS attacks involving large BotNets , I called for cyberawareness to increase in Korea.  ( link ) The current numbers are bad and shows the way will be long.

The recent trend is the most worrying. “South Korea experienced the largest jump (by 45 percent) in zombies created quarter over quarter, and contributed more than a half-million new zombies to the party this quarter” said McAfee. It’s easy to predict spam volume will raise in the next future.

[Top 10 Zombie Creation]

Meanwhile, Korea maintains its position in the “infamous collection” , as called humorously by the software company.

[Top 10 Global Spam Origins]

In our precedent post, we reported the recent surge in DDOS blocking software sales.  It will prevent future harms to websites but won’t stop  zombie infection. There is only one good prophylactic policy : educate everyone to cybersecurity.

Formation is a difficult challenge for companies ; we may help you.

Before my career as a consultant and the founding of my firm, Korea was already on the move in the IT field. How the success story began may interest you.

James Larson, author of various boos concerning Korean Telecommunication sector, has released his early works on the birth of digital Korea under CC License. Hereafter you will find “The Telecommunications Revolution in Korea” (New York, Oxford University Press, 1995 ) covering the 1980s and beginning of 1990s

Enjoy the read !

If after it you want to know the future of Korean TMT sector, please feel free to contact me.