Following is interview with Kim Faura, the CEO of Telefonica, Cataluna, by ET News. I translated the interview script in Korean into English. Please mind the possible errors in the course of re-translating.

Q. What is the purpose (reason) of your visit to Korea?

▲ We would like to enhance the competitiveness of our company. The technology in Korea has been upgrading. Telefonica will also develop its level of technology in the mobile field. We expect KOTRA would play a significant role to support global cooperation between Telefonica and Korean companies.

Q. Which particular areas of Korean IT are you interested in?

▲ It would be “HSDPA”. Telefonica is behind in area of “HSDPA”. I was very impressed by seeing Korean people using it. We have an intention to apply Korea’s mobile technology not only to the HSDPA area but also to other areas. It was interesting to know about ‘Optical Fiber’ technology of LG Nortel in spite that it is part of wireline communication technology. We’d like to learn the technology and provide it to Spain as well as other countries.

Q.There is a plan for disposal of Nortel’s stake in LG Nortel. Do you have an intention to acquire the stake?

▲ I only talked about technologies that NG Nortel has on this visit.

Q. I know that you’re also planning to visit SK C&C.
▲ We are having a meeting this afternoon. I’m interested in what they’ve got for us but not sure what would be suggested.

Q. Which companies in Korea are you hoping to cooperate with?

▲ We are looking for various companies. Because of this our CTO is along with me. We will decide what types of cooperation we suggest to each of them after ensuring whether price and technology is suitable to Spain market.

Q. What do you see the level of Korea’s mobile technology?

▲ Korea is always one of the best countries. Spain is behind with that and wants to improve. I’ve met with Pantech and there are 4 or 5 cell phones which are interesting to me. It could be evaluated as innovative products in Spain or England. We would negotiate a price with the marketing team.

Q. How much are you expecting to be the purchase amount of Korean brand cell phones?

▲ It was 400 million euro in previous year. It’s been rising since this August; we expect it to be 500 million euro for this year. Our role is to deliver products that customers want. People buy Korean brand cell phone because they want it. Consumers in Spain want to get Samsung or LG cell phone.

Q. How much would it be next year?

▲ I can’t tell exactly how much but with this regards, it would grow to be 6 million euro excluding Pantech. Pantech has to be run through test market.

Q. 7 million euro was put on a global R&D last year. Did Telefonica invest in Korea?

▲ I’m not sure. This investment is for world wide. Investment in Korea will be decided concerning this week meeting.

Q. Have you considered direct investment in Korea?

▲ We intended to 2 ~ 3 years ago but it didn’t work out. Korea market is conservative.

Q. What is Telefonica’s vision?

▲ We need various companies. We were an operator before but now we need to give out the value to our end customer through other application. We are showing steady growth now and looking for contents business.

Q. Is there any condition for Korea Company to cooperate with Telefonica?

▲ The answer is No. If there is a competitive product we will find a solution for the cooperation under any circumstances and of course the company has to be reliable.

Q. What about the global business plan?

▲ We acquired the part share of Telecommunication Company of Italy and China. We have a plan to cooperate with them for developing one mobile platform, which enables Samsung and LG benefit from it.

Forbes has recently made a special report “Window Into The Wireless Future” about wireless technologies in South Korea. I am sure that it can be an interesting and insightful reference to those who are interested in the Korean TMT(Technology, Media, Telecoms) sector. I hope you enjoy reading this report, and if you have any questions regarding the contents of the report, you can email me and I will reply to your questions as early as possilbe.

Window Into The Wireless Future

Written by Elizabeth Woyke

Forbes travels to Korea for a peek at how the world of wireless is evolving

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RINGING IN THE FUTURE

The Future of Wireless

In Korea, it’s difficult to talk technology without encountering the word “ubiquitous.” Technologists here attach the term to words as varied as “life,” “computing” and “community.” The message: Every technology in Korea, from broadband to digital television, is designed to be always on, always with you…..

Why Korea Isn’t Rushing To 4G

Super-wired South Korea easily outranks the U.S. in most measures of broadband. But that might just change. In a surprising twist, with help from Korean companies, the U.S. could win the race to upgrade cellular networks to faster mobile broadband speeds…..

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PHONE INNOVATIONS TODAY

Cool Phones Out Of Reach (In America)

Smitten with LG’s ingeniously-named “Ice Cream” phone? Charmed by Samsung’s playful “Haptic Pop” handset? Be prepared to wait–in vain–since neither phone is slated for a U.S. launch…..

Creating LG’s Watch Phone

Few phones have fired up the public’s imagination like LG Electronics’ Watch Phone. The device, which packs advanced cellphone features into a wristwatch, was a hit at January’s Consumer Electronics Show and this week’s Mobile World Congress exhibition, where LG’s mobile head, Skott Ahn, used it to call Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer. Mobile operator Orange recently committed to selling the phone in Europe later this year…..

LG’s Weapon: Netbooks

In the U.S., consumer electronics maker LG Electronics is best known for its cellphones and flat-screen TVs. By this summer, the company hopes to make a name for itself in PCs too…..

Favorite Phone Fruits: Apple Vs. BlackBerry

South Korea would appear to be the ideal market for Research In Motion’s BlackBerry. After all, the country manufactures and consumes some of the world’s most sophisticated mobile technology. Koreans are big into mobile messaging. And the nation is wired for fast, 3G cellular service…..

Samsung, LG Design Face-off

The Korean electronics giants are currently ranked No. 2 and No. 3 worldwide in cellphone shipments after leader Nokia(NOK-news-people). Both are betting on design to keep them in the top three globally, and maybe even catapult them into the lead spot…..

Korea’s Pantech Rings Up U.S. Sales

It’s been a whirlwind year for Pantech Wireless. The Atlanta-based subsidiary of South Korean cellphone maker Pantech Group has released six phones in the last 12 months, including four in the last quarter. AT&T is promoting two of the handsets in TV spots as ideal holiday gifts. Patrick Beattie, Pantech Wireless’ vice president of marketing and sales, says the company has never been busier…..

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RINGING IN SOCIAL CHANGE

The Struggles of OhMyNews

Why pay for a pack of professional journalists when you can get by with gifted amateurs? Established in February 2000 by former investigative magazine journalist Yeon Ho Oh, OhmyNews is South Korea’s grand experiment in citizen journalism. It was touted by organizations from the BBC to Time magazine as the future of the media industry…..

OhMyNews Chooses Influence Over Income

South Korean citizen journalism site OhmyNews is in the red, but says its mission is on track. “OhmyNews is more concerned with being a social and media movement than a business,” says Jean K. Min, the site’s international communications director. “Our goal is to empower citizens.”…..

Grappling With Internet Addiction

Korea is a textbook example. The nation enjoys some of the fastest and cheapest broadband in the world. It also continually battles the adverse effects of being so wired, starting with Internet addiction and cybercrime….

Korea Bridges Digital Divide

Dr. Yeongi Son has a message for President Obama: If you’re serious about making broadband a priority, establish an agency dedicated to digital divide issues…..

Greening Korea

Unlike its neighbor Japn, South Korea is rarely associated with environmentalism. But without fanfare, some of Korea’s leading corporations are embracing renewable energy technologies…..

KT, South Korea’s largest fixed-line and WiBro operator, has created new business opporunities combining WiBro with other services in ways to expand its WiBro market and increase users. Last year KT kicked off a trial run of its WiBro-based Mobile IPTV, which was successful. Now it is expected among Korean WiBro operators, KT and SKT, that their WiBro business will gain momentum with the launch of Mobile IPTV service after the roll-out of 4G networks capable of providing 100Mbps data transfer rates that mobile IPTV requires.

Mobile IPTV is widely regarded as an IP-based multimedia service platform that embodies a combination of ubiquity, IP, and personal. Through Mobile IPTV users will be able to make a phone call over the internet, watch TV programs or UCC videos on the web, and enjoy various interactive services in an all-in-one device having relatively high efficiency when compared to DMB.  

Source: Samsung Electronics

According to KT insider it is assumed that the numer of subscribers to mobile IPTV can amount to the number of mobile phone users, which is four times bigger than possible fixed IPTV subscribers. So, it is certain that mobile IPTV will be an attractive service platform for IPTV service providers to use.

Source: Samsung Electronics