SK Telecom and domestic small and medium-sized business partners are making greater inroads into the US market.

SK Telecom is devising a plan to break into the US wireless Internet market early on, together with domestic wireless content providers (CPs) who are aided by the top-notch wireless Internet technologies and services. Currently they are supplying a variety of wireless Internet content and solutions to Helio (www.helio.com), a joint venture company established by SK Telecom and EarthLink in the US.

To this end, SK Telecom will continue to extend the number of CPs and wireless Internet platform and download server solution developers who are providing their services to Helio. Helio’s main strategy is to provide subscribers with a unique mobile experience by offering multimedia wireless Internet and mobile blog services developed in Korea, which boasts one of the most advanced mobile communication markets in the world. The company hopes such specialized services will set them apart from other MVNO providers.

With Helio, SK Telecom will be able to introduce Korea’s advanced wireless Internet platform WIPI, and ’Killer’ wireless Internet content. Furthermore, domestic content providers, terminal manufacturers, and IT venture companies that have special know-how on wireless Internet servers and terminal solutions, will also have an opportunity to make an entry into the US marketplace.

SK Telecom expects to succeed in securing a new foreign market and lucrative profit source as it pushes into the U.S. mobile communications market. Helio will also give the company an opportunity to break free from the saturated and over competitive Korean domestic mobile market and create a positive business circle, by securing new and long-term earnings abroad.

From 2003 to 2005, a total of 55 small- and medium-sized companies exported wireless Internet platforms and solutions worth about US$88 million to ten countries (including China, the US, Netherlands and Israel), in a joint effort with SK Telecom. SK Telecom estimates that the export volume of wireless Internet solution to the US market will reach approximately US$100 million in 2006. Therefore, the accumulated export volume of wireless Internet products will exceed US$100 million by the end of this year.

SK Telecom’s business partners who are offering wireless Internet solutions to Helio are as follows: eight wireless Internet server solution providers (Feelingk, BTB Solutions, INTICUBE, Varo Vision, Hewlett-Packard Korea, Solvix Technology, McubeWorks and nTels), five terminal solution providers (DigiCAPS, XCE, Infraware, MediaChorus and Altzen), ten marketing infrastructure and system operation supporters (including SK C&C, U-Angel and Wide net) and two content providers such as MySpace and Yahoo.

Helio provides a specialized wireless Internet service not only in English, but also in Korean. Through this service members get access to Korean mobile games, ring tones, screen savers, Korean karaoke, Korean music, Koreatown Information, and Korean news and entertainment. Other notable features are Helio on Top (H.O.T.), that lets users personalize their live content feeds by selecting from various sources from 10 different live ’channels’ that will show on their Helio device idle screen, Mobile Yahoo! Search, which enables users to experience mobile e-mail and messaging as well as receive news and sports updates and Multimedia Messaging, which supports the sharing of large sized video, picture and text messages. With these various services, Helio hopes to bring new trends into the American mobile communications market.

"The global wireless Internet solution market has a relatively high access barrier due to the cutthroat competition and limited demand. However, domestic IT venture companies will have good opportunities if they advance into the global market in a joint effort with a larger telecom service provider" said Sun Hong Choi, president of Feelingk that is offering Helio wireless Internet download servers.

SK Telecom has made strong efforts to support small- and medium-sized companies’ R&D infrastructure in order to aid in their advancement into the global market. To accomplish these ends the company is operating a ’Mobile Test Lab’ that offers an actual mobile communication network environment. There is also a ’3G Reality Center’ that is equipped with a test-bed GSM network environment. These facilities help the company’s partners test their technologies and solutions, as well as verify business feasibilities in the global market.