KT Service launched commercially in June covers Seoul and Gyeonggi province Through WiBro, Korea's leading communication's provider, KT, has been spearheading domestic standardization as well as technology development by propelling WiBro's commercialization utilizing 2.3GHz since 2002. And KT is striving to create new wire/wireless integration service markets as a next-generation growth engine to inject fresh vigor into the ailing economy. Since being selected as WiBro business provider by the government on Jan. 2005, KT confirmed WiBro's successful technology development and high expectations of its service by demonstrating it to the world at the APEC summit meeting in Busan last November, vice president Jeong Kwan-Young, Business Planning Department, Mobile Internet Business Group, KT noted. In conjunction with WiBro business' propulsion strategy, KT has been promoting in the meantime the service's readiness for commercial service by supplying some areas in Seoul and Gyeonggi, whose initial demand is being bolstered by the pilot service launched last March. As of the end of June, KT has commercialized these areas and will plan to expand WiBro service supply areas to the whole of Seoul and major cities in the metropolitan area by year-end, Jeong said. In connection with the market outlook and its ripple effect since WiBro introduction, the vice president predicted that the number of WiBro service users would grow to 8 million~10.7 million in 2011 or thereabouts, adding that if WiBro will be activated by means of business provider's proactive publicity activities, the actual number of subscribers may be even greater than this. Jeong stressed that KT aims to boost its turnover to 1.2 trillion won (around $1.26 billion) by 2010 through implementing the WiBro project. In regard to WiBro's ripple effect, Jeong points out that its ripple effect is presumed to grow in tandem with associated industry's activation like IT industry-related content & equipment and diverse industry spheres such as culture, circulation and service. WiBro service which has been commercialized in Korea for the first time globally, came to be able to expect up to royalty income about service operation technology and the core technology, needless to say associated equipment as well as terminal's world export through international standardization and globalization on the basis of domestic activation. For the purpose of WiBro market's early activation, KT plans to supply seamless wire/wireless integration service by connecting established business like Megapass, CDMA complementing WiBro while, at the same time, activating content as well as service markets and increasing consumers' service-use benefits by developing multimedia/convergence-model service and the core BM in priority. Jeong said that KT would promote the Second Internet Revolution through WiBro in the wireless market too, following the Internet Revolution sparked by the introduction of the highspeed broadband Internet.