Wide Telecom set to release new CDMA handsets
Wide Telecom Inc., a rising manufacturer of mobile terminals, is set to advance into the CDMA (code division multiple access) handset market this month.
The company, which started as a pager maker in July 1996, recently completed the breakdown of its departmental organization into a total of 20 small and efficient teams with a focus on its entry into the market, company officials said yesterday.
In order to ensure a solid footing for sustained growth in its new market, the company also employed more doctoral research staff and a marketing director, company officials said.
In connection with its ongoing cooperation with SK Telecom on the development of the next-generation mobile technology, IMT-2000, Wide Telecom plans to expand its research staff on mobile handset technology by as many as 100 personnel in the coming months.
Last year, the company obtained a license on chip technology, the core part of CDMA technologies, and has since developed mobile handsets using its own technology. It has already signed a letter of intent (LOI) with KT Freetel, in which the wireless carrier is intent on purchasing more than 100,000 mobile handsets made by Wide Telecom worth about 25 billion won each year. In January this year, it signed a 60 billion won export contract with Four Seas Telecom of Hong Kong. Under the deal, to begin in October this year, Wide Telecom will supply over 300,000 units of its mobile handsets to the Hong Kong company each year.
Wide Telecom has grown steadily largely through exports of its pagers ever since its founding. Last year, it posted 1.8 billion won in net profits from 30 billion won in pager sales, which accounted for 80 percent of total sales.
In 1997, Wide Telecom recorded 14.3 billion won in sales. In 1998, the company turned its eyes overseas from the stagnant domestic pager market and almost doubled its sales to 22.4 billion won.
"Buttressed by sharp growth in pager exports so far and on the basis of our accumulated telecom handset technology, we have decided to shift our core competency toward mobile handsets," said Kim Jae-myung, president of the company.
"At present, we are in smooth export negotiations with handset distributors in China, the United States and Brazil. The company is likely to record 120 billion won in sales this year, 42 percent higher than its previous forecast of 84.5 billion won," he said.
The mobile handset to be released by Wide Telecom, under the brand name of MITZ, is only 16 mm thick and the company plans to incorporate wireless application protocol (WAP) and "aroma" software into some models. The company has exclusive rights to the aroma software.
"For successful entry into the nearly saturated domestic mobile handset market, a novel way of differentiating is a must," Kim said.
Turning to next-generation mobile handsets, Wide Telecom plans to complete the development of asynchronized IMT-2000 handsets by the end of this year, and synchronized ones by the end of next year. It expects to begin supply before the opening of the 2002 World Cup.
"The company expects sales to exceed 500 billion won in 2002 when IMT-2000 handsets will be commercially available," he said.
SK Telecom, the largest telecom firm in Korea, is most likely to be licensed by the government later this year to provide the next-generation mobile telephone service which will make transmitting video and text data possible, in addition to international roaming.
As SK Telecom's development partner for IMT-2000 handsets, Wide Telecom will likely become a supplier of IMT-2000 handsets to the massive telecom firm once it is designated as an IMT-2000 service provider.
Though Wide Telecom is striding into the CDMA handset market, its existing pager exports cannot be considered a sunset business. Presently, the company is receiving mounting orders from countries lacking a CDMA infrastructure or where pager production has ceased. The company recently developed voice pagers and is tapping new markets for the product with pager service providers at home and abroad.
"Even as the company pushes its new business of CDMA handsets this year, it will expand its overseas pager markets as well, particularly in Southeast Asia, the United States and China," Kim said.
Though the number of subscribers to domestic mobile telephone services is almost at saturation level, Wide Telecom will tackle the market as the only Korean venture firm with its own technology to develop mobile handsets.
"Just as we have made it in the pager business by taking on niche markets, the first thing the company plans to do is sell handsets to those customers who are intent on replacing old models with new ones," he said.
Kim, 38, worked in a telecom lab of Samsung Electronics Co. from 1984 to 1989, in Standard Telecom from 1993 to 1995 and established Wide Telecom in 1996.
For more information on the company, log on to www.widetel.co.kr or call 0342-709-5455.
Updated: 03/01/2000 |
