SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM) today introduced Long Term Evolution (LTE) smartphone and LTE-dedicated price plans for the first time in Korea to   open the 4G LTE era in full swing.

The company will become the nation’s first to offer Galaxy SⅡ LTE, available at SK Telecom’s retail stores today.

Galaxy SⅡ LTE is Samsung Electronics’ highest spec smartphone with a 4.5 inch WVGA display, 1.5 GHz dual core CPU, Super AMOLED Plus and 1,850mAh large-volume battery. It offers a wide range of SK Telecom’s LTE services including high-definition multimedia service, ultra-high definition video call service, multiplayer networking games and SNS-based navigation service for pedestrians.

In July 2011, SK Telecom commercialized LTE service for the first time in Korea and released two kinds of LTE data modem handsets. Now, by adding LTE smarphone to its LTE device lineup, the company will be able to offer full-fledged 4G LTE services, thereby accelerating the speed of LTE service adoption. Moreover, SK Telecom plans to release seven different LTE smartphone models by the year-end and expect some LTE smartphone models to make their global debut in Korea. 

Jang Dong-Hyun, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of SK Telecom said, “SK Telecom has been leading innovations in the field of LTE since it commercialized Korea’s first LTE service in July 2011. Looking ahead, SK Telecom will provide differentiated, premium LTE services based on its unmatched competitiveness in call quality, device lineup and service/content, while at the same time making strenuous efforts to further expand and enhance the LTE-based mobile ecosystem.”


■ Plans to release seven LTE smartphones and one tablet computer by 2011-end, adding diversity to its LTE device lineup

SK Telecom will introduce seven smartphones and one tablet computer by the end of 2011, thereby securing a total of ten different LTE devices. The company will launch Galaxy SⅡ LTE, the first Korean LTE smartphone, and one HTC smartphone in September; three smartphones made by Samsung, LG and Pantech, respectively, as well as an 8.9 inch LTE tablet computer developed by Samsung, for the first time in Korea, in October; one Samsung smartphone in November; and one Pantech smartphone in December.

In addition, the company will offer a multimedia docking system to the first 50,000 Galaxy S Ⅱ LTE subscribers and a KRW 100,000 discount for holders of Galaxy SⅡ LTE who wish to purchase a LTE tablet computer. 

SK Telecom said that upon recognizing the grave importance of a strong device lineup as well a reliable LTE network in making LTE a preferred choice among customers, it will continue to introduce the latest LTE smartphones and tablet computers, thereby providing customers with the widest device option and delivering a differentiated, valuable experience.


■ Announces LTE price plans, ensuring convenient use of its premium service at affordable cost  

Adding to its already launched LTE Modem Price Plan in July, SK Telecom launched diverse price plans designated for LTE to enable customers to use high quality data service conveniently and at a reasonable price.

SK Telecom said that with the aim to ensure convenient use of premium LTE services for the majority of customers, it offers preset data amounts, which are sufficient to meet customers’ needs. The company also devised additional measures to make customers feel comfortable using LTE services without a heavy cost burden.

SK Telecom announced two different LTE-dedicated plans namely ▲ LTE Price Plan and ▲ LTE Data Price Plan

LTE Price Plan is divided into seven different monthly plans that offer a certain amount of voice, data and text messages. In particular, considering that high-definition video telephony lies at the core of LTE, the company includes video calls within the voice cap. Moreover, ’LTE Plus Discount’* is offered to new purchasers of LTE smartphones.
*Please refer to LTE Service Price Plans.

LTE Data Price Plan is made for customers who use data service rather than voice calls. Customers can choose from four different monthly data plans depending on their data usage, while using a standard voice plan.

SK Telecom also introduced innovative measures to alleviate cost burden of customers who exceed data cap: LTE Data Tariff Sectional Discount and LTE Additional Data Flat Rate Plan.

LTE Data Tariff Sectional Discount prevents excessive data charges by offering up to 83 percent discount from actual usage-based charge through the combined application of data volume-based pricing* and flat rate charge for each section of data usage that surpass monthly data limit.

LTE Additional Data Flat Rate Plan is a KRW 9000 monthly flat rate plan that enables constant data use at a speed fast enough for web surfing and email even after surpassing the data limit of LTE Price Plan without incurring additional data charge.
* For cases where volume-based pricing is applied, the company charges the same rate as that of the 3G.


■ Launches a large promotion, offering 50 percent off the subscription fee, etc.

SK Telecom is holding a large-scale discount promotion to boost the adoption of premium LTE services including subscription fee discount, video telephony discount as well as the provision of additional data amount.

The company offers 50 percent off the subscription fee for those who newly join LTE price plans until December 2011 (KRW 36,000  KRW 18,000) to help reduce customer’s initial cost burden.

In addition, with the aim to invite more customers to experience high-definition video calling, the core LTE service, SK Telecom cut the per-second charge of LTE video telephony by 40 percent (from KRW 3 to KRW 1.8), making it the same as that of the voice call, until February 2012.

Furthermore, SK Telecom will provide 50 percent additional data amount to subscribers of LTE Price Plan. The company has been implementing the measure for subscribers of LTE Modem Price Plan subscribers since July 2011. Customers who join LTE Price Plan priced KRW 62,000 or higher before the end of December will be able to use LTE Additional Data Flat Rate Plan for free until February 2012.

■ Scheduled to double the LTE bandwidth from 5MHz to 10MHz on 1 Oct, further accelerating upgrade speed

SK Telecom announced its plans to move up the schedule for LTE bandwidth expansion from 2011-end to1 Oct. 2011. The increase of the LTE bandwidth from 5MHz (one-way) to 10MHz will expand network capacity and offer twice faster speed, thus delivering a differentiated LTE experience for customers.

SK Telecom will also deploy its LTE network to the Seoul Metropolitan Subway system. Starting from Oct. 1, LTE services will be available initially in 11 subway lines within Seoul, while being gradually expanded to cover subway lines located in Inchoen and Kyeonggi-do.

The company plans to offer seamless high-quality LTE service in all subway stations and routes in the Seoul Metropolitan Area through its 100 base stations and 2,000 optic repeaters installed in 307 underground stations and 14 subway lines.

SK Telecom is set to provide the best, unrivalled premium LTE service in Korea by securing strong network coverage – supported by network speed that is five times faster than 3G and two times faster than Wibro, as well as its 1 million repeaters - that guarantees flawless and seamless communication regardless of place including in-buildings and underground areas.

SK Telecom completed optimizing base stations and optic repeaters for LTE networks, fully utilizing its network knowhow and technology accumulated over the last 28 years through the deployment and operation of its networks in the 800MHz frequency band. With the LTE bandwidth expansion, the company puts itself ahead of others in terms of LTE call quality.

■ Expected to offer diverse innovative 4G LTE services

1. Video communication services
SK Telecom commercialized ’LTE Video Call,’ the world’s first high-quality video call service and plans to provide this service as a built-in feature on all Korean LTE smartphones. With outstanding data handling capability, LTE Video Call allows users to experience eight times better image quality compared to WCDMA video call.*
* Video call speed is enhanced from 64Kbps to over 500Kbps.

Based on its 4G LTE networks, SK Telecom is committed to offering greater convenience and benefits for customers by developing and delivering diverse high-definition contents. 4G LTE offers five times faster content download speed and two to three times higher image quality than 3G networks. SK Telecom’s application market T Store offers some 13,000 high-definition video contents. In addition, ’hoppin’, the first N-screen service in Korea released early this year, provides around 8,000 movie/ drama/ music video contents, leading to the expectation that video content consumption over LTE networks will be greatly boosted. 

The company also expects its navigation service ’T Map HOT’ to gain popularity among LTE smartphone users. Launched in July 2011, ’T Map Hot’ is a navigation made for pedestrians, offering high-definition maps that clearly show even small paths (or alleys) of key business areas; providing rankings of popular restaurants/cafés; and showing large-volume contents like photos. As the service runs five times faster when accessed via LTE devices - compared to 3G devices, - it will enhance the convenience of using large-volume multimedia navigation contents.  

2. Multi-Networking games
Multi-networking games, which require quick switch of screens and constant data transmission/ reception, are also expected to become widespread with LTE deployment, allowing mobile users to enjoy multi-networking games on mobile devices anywhere, including while on the go.

SK Telecom is providing multiuser networking games including ’Dungeon Defenders’ in a separate mobile version for Android OS. Galaxy SⅡ LTE users can download the game for free. The company also plans to launch 10 more multi-networking games within this year.


3. Mobile cloud service
SK Telecom also launched ’T Cloud’, a new concept of cloud service optimized for the 4G LTE network. T Cloud offers mass data storage/transmission, N-screen service and SNS-based cloud service at a speed matching that of the fixed-line networks, while existing mobile cloud services were mainly used for storage and transmission of small-volume data including photos, address book and text message.

For instance, users can share large-volume data stored in T cloud; start a movie (content stored in T cloud) on a PC at home and then continue to watch it on his/her mobile phone upon leaving the house; and move contents freely between T cloud and Cyworld, Korea’s largest social networking site.


■ Aims to attract 500,000 LTE subscribers by 2011 and 15 million by 2014

SK Telecom will move aggressively to draw in 4G LTE subscribers as the release of the LTE smartphone is expected to boost the adoption of LTE services. The company projects that its LTE service will attract around 500,000 users in the second half of 2011, 5 million users by 2012, 11 million users by 2013, and around 15 million users by 2014.

[Projection of SK Telecom’s LTE Subscriber Count]
Type                                                   2011      2012      2013      2014
LTE Subscriber Count (10,000)      50        500     1,100    1,500

SK Telecom plans to complete LTE roll-out in 28 cities including the Seoul Metropolitan area and six metropolitan cities by January 2011, and secure national coverage (82 cities) by 2013. SK Telecom also said that the national coverage could become a reality earlier than planned depending on the market situation.

In particular, SK Telecom will use the recently-secured 1.8GHz band to handle the surging data traffic. The company is scheduled to begin developing equipment and terminals, and designing networks that use 1.8GHz band spectrum from the end of 2011. Also it plans to start building 1.8GHz band equipment as early as year 2012.