Since the official release of the iPhone last year November 28th, with sole custody by KT, SKT and LGT has been very aware of the consequences Apple is going to bring to Korea’s telco industry. Reaching 100,000 in iPhone subscribers within the first month of its release(continued to 500,000 in 4 months), the iPhone has certainly been KT’s miracle drug who had only accumulated 20,000~30,000 for the past two years. However while KT has been quite laid back with its taste of victory, SKT(dominant in Korea with over 50% of mobile market shares) has been vigorously pursing strategies to stand up against the iPhone. LGT has its own strategies, but is happening to be lagging with a weak line up of new smartphones  just as KT is, without its bread winning iPhone.

KT
KT has been tasting the fruits of its, well, heavy “investment” for monopoly over the iPhone supply in Korea. However, recently they have also been facing a curb in number of smartphone models obtained from Samsung. It is no secret that Samsung has expressed its disregards towards the entry of iPhone into the Korea (of course we cannot simply draw an induction with these two parallels).
Moreover, though KT has been believed to be stepping ahead with release of other Wi-Fi-enabled smartphones in the market, it has only three smartphone line ups consisting of Nokia X6, LGE’s Android phone, Pantech.

LGT
LGT has not been so hot either. Though it has always ranked 3rd amongst the 3 telcos in Korea, its new ‘Integrative LGT’ project’s communication system has made it the incompatible to foreign manufactured smartphones. Like KT, its number of line ups has been limited to two, the Eclipse phone and Samsung’s Android phone.

SKT’s forthcoming smartphones are △ Samsung’s ‘Galaxy A’, ‘Galaxy S’ △ HTC’s ‘Designer’, ‘HD2′ △ Sony Ericsson’s ‘Xperia X10′ △ Motorola’s ‘droid’, ‘XT800W’ △ Pantech’s ‘Sirius’ △ Research In Motion’s (RIM)  ‘BlackBerry Bold 9700′ △ LG Electronics ‘SU950′, 10 species in total.

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SKT
SKT on the other hand, has been on fire with its plans to release 10 kinds of new smartphone in the second quarter. This is astonishing compared to the 13 models it has released over the past 5 years. It is basing most its models on the Android OS, with it grand trophy phone, the Galaxy S (of which SKT has sole supply rights) releasing hopefully this June. Its high utility with acute telecommunication openness and portability, has given it high expectations to be most competitive against the iPhone in Korea. Its further announcement in April 14th to go all-out open WiFi is likely to bring an inevitable showdown with KT.

The arrival of iPhone has certainly made its waves in Korea’s telco market. However, there is certainly more yet to be seen of what will become of the three telcos – KT, LGT and SKT – of Korea.

Samsung and the world’s largest conglomerate GE (General Electrics) are joining hands in the field of smart grid, and beginning a “Pilot Project” in the premise of technology research and business development.

Smart grid has currently been drawing the focus of the world’s IT industries. It revolutionizes the electricity provider relations to its consumers into a two-way communication that makes the allocation and utilization of energy much more efficient. Smart grid can also incorporate the use of solar and wind energy into the electrical system, which further adds to its attractiveness in part of the green technology schema.

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Korea’s Accelerating Smart Grid Power Supply Outlook

Korea’s smart grid market has deemed very promising. The “2010 Global Smart Grid Forum” was successfully hosted in Seoul on January 20, where the President of the American Smart Grid Association, Guido Bartles ceaselessly spoke of the fast development of Korea’s smart grid industry, which has been much due to the readily competitive ICT and infra in Korea. He commented that “This is possible due to the strong infrastructure set by KEPCO (Korea Electric Power Corporation); the cooperative relations between the Korean government, industries, and universities; and Korea’s unparallel internet broadband speed.” Furthermore, the Korean government has been vigorously pushing for smart grid development as part of the 2008 Green Energy project.

However, though the current usage of smart grid in Korea had begun effectively since 2000, it had been mostly limited to higher voltage areas such as factories, buildings and apartments.

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Homeowner / Retail Customer Premise

With this joint collaboration between Samsung and GE, Korea’s smart grid market is expected to further infiltrate into lower voltage appliances such as air conditioners, lighting and television. “Smart home appliances” will be one of the focus projects in this joint collaboration, as Samsung is in charge of a substantial home appliance development division. Samsung and GE both expect a win-win situation with this deal, as GE has been seeking to expand its smart grid industry into Europe and other regions, and Samsung believes that this deal will help them improve their technical sophistication and also be helpful for their future advancement into the U.S. smart grid market. Furthermore, this deal has created a positive buzz for the smart grid related companies in Korea, who are growingly seeing the promising future of smart grid and Korea.

Amongst the 3W mobile networks available in Korea - WCDMA, WiBro, and WiFi - WiFi had not been receiving much attention from the mobile business circles. However, since the inception of iPhone and the following smartphones, WiFi has become the critical resource of competitive advantage for mobile network operators to serve their smartphone users. In particular, the WiFi became one of the most conflictual policy issues for Korea’s local government election coming up early this June. Concerned with earning the favor and votes of the public, politicians have been insisting on the free use of WiFi in public places. However, each related stakeholder clearly has different perspective on this matter.

Policy makers are insisting on making WiFi a free public network to improve the benefits of public interests. They asserted that free mobile network infrastructure is necessary to boost the use of smartphones. Further regarding the investment costs for the policy makers, WiFi has the most appropriate budget option compared with other W networks.

The industry on the other hand showed different reactions. KT, who has already made substantial investments on WiFi coverage throughout the nation, strictly disagreed with the free use of WiFi. KT strongly asserted that it will discourage investment on mobile network from private sectors and also that WiFi has great deal of security issues, which should be dealt by expert operators rather than local government. They instead suggested that the vitalization of smartphone usage can be achieved through inexpensive price plans. However, SKT conversely insisted that local government should cooperate with telcos in its use within certain public areas and facilities, like the case with street lights, in order to avoid overlapping investments.

Lastly, the KCC (Korea Communication Committee) emphasized their policy principle that government’s role should lie in promoting, rather than creating, an efficient market. In other words, WiFi should be built based on market competition rather than by local government’s sole initiative. But they partially accepted the open use of WiFi network in cases with public benefits such as education or accident prevention. 

Telecommunication infrastructure should serve to benefit the public by its nature. However, by over-emphasizing on public benefits, the private sector will likely lose their motivations for making investment. WiFi will play a critical role for the future mobile internet ecosystem, especially concerning the spread of smart devices like smartphones. Hence, the policy on WiFi should not be decided based on politicians’ own interests. Rather, it should be by balancing between market mechanism and public benefits, and vigorously evaluated the feasibility of execution for each action.