QUALCOMM and KTF Extend Contract for KTF to Continue Offering Highly Successful BREW(TM)-Enabled Services in South Korea
Monday December 16, 7:30 am ET
- KTF Success Highlighted by Phenomenal Subscriber Uptake; Initial Adoption Rates of BREW-Based Service in South Korea Far Surpass Those of DoCoMo's i-mode Service in Japan -
SAN DIEGO, Dec. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- QUALCOMM Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM - News), pioneer and world leader of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) digital wireless technology, today announced that KTF, a leading South Korean wireless operator, has extended its contract to provide a wireless application service based on QUALCOMM's BREW solution -- the only complete end-to-end solution that enables over-the-air downloading of applications -- virtually anywhere, anytime.
KTF, the first carrier in the world to commercially deploy BREW-enabled service, launched its magic n multipack(TM) service in November 2001. Since the launch, KTF's magic n multipack subscribers have downloaded more than 15 million fun and useful BREW applications from a variety of categories such as entertainment, gaming, communications, productivity and information. KTF subscribers adopted BREW-based services faster than DoCoMo subscribers adopted i-mode in the eight months following each operator's service launch. While DoCoMo's i-mode subscribers accounted for five percent of voice subscribers, KTF's BREW-enabled magic n multipack subscribers reached 10 percent of voice subscribers over the same time period (source: KTF and NTT DoCoMo).
"The BREW solution is a tremendous success in South Korea -- generating substantial average revenue per user increases for KTF and driving consumer excitement with more than 350 applications," said Peggy Johnson, president of QUALCOMM Internet Services. "KTF's BREW contract extension, represents a commitment to maintaining their leadership position in wireless data services."
Details of the business agreement between QUALCOMM and KTF were not disclosed.
Deployments of the BREW solution continue as carriers throughout the world join Verizon Wireless and ALLTEL in the United States, KTF in South Korea and KDDI in Japan in commercializing BREW-based services. U.S. Cellular has launched a BREW user trial and China Unicom announced its plans to launch BREW-based services in China. Twenty-nine BREW-enabled handsets are already available to consumers worldwide, and 30 device manufacturers have indicated their support for BREW.
QUALCOMM's Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless(TM) (BREW) platform is a thin application execution environment that provides an open, standard platform for wireless devices. The BREW platform is part of a complete, end- to-end solution for wireless applications development, device configuration, application distribution, and billing and payment. The complete BREW solution includes the BREW SDK(TM) (software development kit) for developers, the BREW applications platform and porting tools for device manufacturers, and the BREW Distribution System (BDS) that is controlled and managed by carriers -- enabling them to easily get applications from developers to market and coordinate the billing and payment process. Carriers' BREW-based services will enable consumers to customize their handsets by downloading applications over the air from a carrier's application download server. The BREW platform is a product of QUALCOMM Internet Services (QIS), a division within the QUALCOMM Wireless & Internet (QWI) Group of QUALCOMM Incorporated.
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This is good to see in light of Korea MIC wanting to advance a Korean solution. |
