Businessweek

SK Telecom Co., Ltd. provides wireless telecommunications services in Korea. The company provides the following core services: cellular voice services, wireless data services, and broadband Internet and fixed-line telephone services. Services The company offers wireless digital voice and data transmission services via networks. Cellular Voice Services The company’s cellular voice services, which comprise basic wireless voice transmission services and related ‘value-added’ services, as well as global roaming services, remain its core business area. The company’s main value-added voice-related services in 2011 included services that provide a record of missed calls in the event a subscriber’s mobile phone is engaged or switched off, known as its ‘Call Keeper’ service; services that play a ‘ring back’ melody in lieu of a conventional dial tone when callers dial a subscriber’s mobile phone, known as ‘COLORing’ service, as well as COLORing services that periodically change the default ring-back melody according to the subscriber’s music category selection, known as ‘Auto COLORing’ service; and services that alert subscribers when a dialed number that was engaged when first dialed is no longer engaged. The company also offers cellular global roaming services, branded as its ‘T-Roaming’ service, through service agreements with various foreign wireless telecommunications service providers. Global roaming services allow subscribers traveling abroad to make and receive calls, often using their regular mobile phone numbers. Subscribers using EV-DO- and WCDMA-capable handsets are able to make and receive calls using their regular mobile phone number without changing their handsets. In addition, the company provides global roaming service to foreigners traveling to Korea. The company’s global roaming service is offered in three technologies, in part depending on which mobile phone standards are available in a particular region: code division multiple access (CDMA), GSM and wide-band code division multiple access (WCDMA) roaming. It offers CDMA voice roaming services in 18 countries, GSM voice roaming services in 183 countries and WCDMA voice roaming services in 74 countries. In addition, the company offers CDMA data roaming services in 9 countries, GSM data roaming services in 91 countries and WCDMA data roaming services in 80 countries. In 2011, approximately 8.9 million subscribers utilized its global roaming services. In addition, the company provides interconnection service to connect its networks to domestic and international fixed-line and other wireless networks. Wireless Data Services (including Wireless Internet Services) The company offers its subscribers wireless data communications services, as well as wireless access to a variety of digital content and services, including Internet-based content and services. It is in the process of expanding and upgrading its main 3G network and its LTE network. The company commenced commercial LTE services in July 2011, which is capable of supporting data transmission at a speed faster than that of its 3G services. Wireless Data, short text message service (SMS) and multimedia message service (MMS) Services: The company provides wireless data communication services, including its basic short text message service, or SMS, which allows subscribers to send and receive short text messages to and from their mobile phones and other devices. In addition to text-only SMS, the company also offers a multimedia message service, or MMS. MMS allows subscribers to send and receive multimedia messages containing graphic, audio and video clips to and from their mobile phones. Wireless Internet Services: In addition to its wireless data communications services, the company also offers its subscribers wireless access to the Internet, primarily through its ‘NATE’ portal, which is an integrated wired and wireless Internet platform that utilizes wireless application protocol, or WAP, technology, to provide a gateway between its cellular network and the Internet. The company also provides its smartphone subscribers with direct access to the Internet using mobile Internet techn