(Korean) Mobile Telecom Carriers Focusing on LBS Business
By Cho Yoon-ah
Thursday, February 06, 2003
Mobile telecom service providers like SK Telecom and KTF have cited Location Based Service (LBS) as the next-generation promising business. Accordingly, their investment will and business strategies are expected to lead the direction of the LBS market. Early in the year, the government announced its will to nurture LBS as a strategic export industry. And recently, LBS Industry Conference was inaugurated. Such a rapidly changing market environment draws attention to LBS.
The LBS industry also sees that this year, the actually first year of the LBS service, investment by telecom operators in finding profit models and developing systems would be the most important variable for putting the market on the right track.
SK Telecom, the chair company of LBS Industry Conference, announced its business plans that it would not only find LBS-related products like a location identification service but also offer wired/wireless linking and interworking application services, including mobile commerce and mobile advertisement, through various devices such as PC, PDA, mobile phone, and car navigator.
The company is going to expand the range of its portal service ‘Nate’ to L (location) Info, L Entertainment, L Commerce, and L Biz and develop services like mobile tour guide, .fleet management, community, game, meeting, mobile advertisement, guard, mobile commerce, and emergency rescue.
SK Telecom has decided to advance into the universal LBS field seeking high profits for a short term, based on two pillars, the application content area, including locating missing children and old people, emergency rescue, and tracking freight, and the application development area such as mobile commerce, mobile payment, advertisement, PR, and taxi call.
KTF plans to focus its investment on establishing a system for the introduction of GPS service and reorganizing existing cell-based services such as 'nGeleye' and 'Guardian Angel' into GPS-based ones this year. In addition, the telecom operator is to find the next-generation profit model through the development of various services linked with multimedia service, Kmmerce, and VOD phone.
To that end, it has set concrete targets such as offering GPS-based basic service in cdma2000 1x environment in April, upgrading cell-based services, establishing GPS- based LBS platform, building precise LBS content infrastructure, increasing subscribers through GPS phone, and boosting sales.
In the mean time, LG Telecom employs the most passive strategy in investment. Even though the company is offering cell-based ‘finding friends’ service, it has not set a concrete schedule for either the development of GPS only service or the platform establishment. But it plans to make investment, depending on market development, while focusing on Telematics or emergency rescue service until 2004.
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