With an aim to lead the next-generation mobile telecom market, KTF has recently announced its plan to make a speedy transition to 3-G WCDMA technologies. In a press conference held on April 20, Cho Young-chu, president and CEO of KTF, said that the company will concentrate on making preparations to lead the mobile telecom market during the next decade. To achieve this goal, President Cho said that KTF will be investing 780 billion won this year and lay down WCDMA networks in 84 cities around the nation. When this task is completed, KTF will be able to provide nationwide 3-G services with a maximum transmission speed of 10Mbps, a far speedier rate than the 2-G mobile services currently available. In the meantime, industry watchers say that the company's announcement for a prompt shift to WCDMA can be attributable to KTF's efforts to narrow the gap with SK Telecom. They explain that SK Telecom, whose 800MHz transmissions could cover a wider range than those of KTF with 1.8 GHz frequencies, has so far been placed on a more advantageous position than KTF since it could save various costs needed to install and maintain transmission equipment, thus allowing the company to take up the largest share of the mobile telecom market. Accordingly, industry watchers say, KTF has come up with a plan to make a speedy transition to the next-generation WCDMA that can utilize low frequencies as SKT's. "As WCDMA is a service that puts latecomers in par with mobile gurus with superior frequencies," President Cho stresses, "we will venture to achieve a success with WCDMA sooner than later. And, to this end, we will be providing differentiated services with special contents in the form of video communications, high-speed data transmissions, and global roaming by capitalizing on the strengths of WCDMA."