SEOUL, KOREA – Korea Communications Commission (KCC)’s attempts to handpick Korea’s fourth WiBro-based mobile operator, which date back to 2010, eventually fizzled.
As Korea's telecoms regulator KCC’s plan to pick the fourth mobile operator came to nought, efforts to bring fresh competition into Korea’s stagnant mobile communications market, lower communications costs and spread the domestically-developed technology “WiBro” were all put on the backburner indefinitely.
Since the task of licensing a mobile communications carrier is to be handed over to the tentatively named Ministry of Future Creative Science, the responsibilities to select the nation’s fourth mobile carrier and draw up WiBro policies will virtually fall on the new Korea government’s shoulders.
As the KCC disqualified the two bidders -the KMI (Korea Mobile Internet) consortium and its rival IST (Internet Space Time) - from offering WiBro-based mobile communications services, the emergence of the fourth mobile carrier seems far away.
WiBro, a wireless broadband Internet technology developed by the Korean telecoms industry, has ended up as a white elephant in the market. The combined number of WiBro subscribers of KT and SK Telecom stands at a paltry one million as of the end of last year.
Sean Chung (hbpark@etnews.com)
**Article provided by etnews [Korea IT News]
[Reference] : http://english.etnews.com/electronics/2715655_1303.html
