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To: Dennis Roth who wrote (302)	7/6/2000 8:22:36 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 197444

Government decides general selection plan for IMT-2000 licenses etnews.co.kr\|03 The Ministry of Information and Communications has decided the general policy for selecting IMT-2000 service operators. The ministry said yesterday the decision was made after consulting with the political parties. According to the guidelines, government regulators will select three licensees, allowing them to adopt either the synchronous or asynchronous standard. The government will ask licensees to contribute between 870 million dollars and 1.13 billion dollars. As for standards, industry experts expect Korea Telecom and SK Telecom to adopt synchronous mode and the LG Group to use the asynchronous mode. But other analysts said LG may also choose the asynchronous standard, pointing out that LG has indicated such a move. Critics said the general policy plan looks to acknowledge the vested rights of existing mobile communication service providers. They also said the contribution is set too high. Date : 2000.07.06

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (302)	7/6/2000 8:26:35 AM
From: foundation	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 197444

SK, LG, KT Likely to Be Chosen for IMT-2000 hk.co.kr In all likelihood SK Telecom, LG Telecom and Korea Telecom will have been selected as the operators of IMT-2000 (International Mobile Telecommunication) when the results are in. To be sure, Korea IMT-2000, a consortium set up specifically for the project, is vying hard, and the government has promised no preferential treatment would be given to existing service providers, but industry analysts have all but written them off. In setting the qualifications for IMT-2000 operators, the Ministry of Information and Communication said Wednesday following a consultation with the legislature that there will only be three licensees. And so this means one of the four aspiring companies will have to be left out of the pack and SK, LG and Korea Telecom simply have too much experience to allow that to happen. ``Chances are that IMT-2000 Korea will form a partnership with either Korea Telecom or LG Telecom since SK Telecom has said it will go it alone,'' said one industry analyst. While it appears to be an open and shut case _ three existing mobile communications service companies making the transition into IMT-2000 _ there have been voices of dissent. ``The government is asking for a maximum contribution of 1.3 trillion won from each operator and this is nearly 10 times what it was when the PCS (personal communications service) companies were selected,'' said one company official. In the case of IMT-2000 Korea, it said this is a citizens' coalition designed to provide the most ideal services to subscribers and so it is not fair that it is asked to make the same contribution as existing mobile communications service providers. The contribution, which will be used later to help cut service charges for subscribers, is actually a charge for buying the frequency. Recently, the French government sold the frequency for 5.2 trillion won. On the technical side, all companies are believed to be favoring the asynchronous system which is used in Europe but this is feared to wipe out the huge investment made in CDMA (code division multiple access) technologies and create trade friction with the United States which is use a synchronous system. ``We believe the European method is more advanced and better suited for Korea and the government did say that there is no limitation on the technology to be used,'' said one SK official. The company that is really feeling the heat is Korea Telecom since it is a state-invested company and is obligated to look out for the national and public interest and so the option is still open. ``It is difficult to tell for now, but if Korea Telecom decides to adopt the synchronous system, SK Telecom is likely to follow suit since it had until recently showed a preference for the American technology,'' the analyst said. And if the two companies decide to go with the American technology, there will be little alternative for LG Telecom but to converge and adopt the same system, the industry analysts said. ``Setting up the IMT-2000 network is going to require huge investment and the three companies will have to collaborate with each other one way or another and this means they will have to use the same technology,'' one analyst said. The IMT-2000 services are to go into commercial operation in 2002 when there is projected to be some 1.35 million subscribers, a number which will increase to 12.4 million in the year 2005 and surpass the 28 million mark in 2011. ÀÔ·Â½Ã°£ 2000/07/06 16:40