SK Telecom eyes 2 mln smartphone users, building Wi-Fi network this year

(ATTN: ADDS WiFi investment size in para 3)
By Lee Youkyung
SEOUL, Jan. 14 (Yonhap) -- SK Telecom Co., South Korea's largest mobile carrier,
said Thursday that it aims to win 2 million new smartphone users in 2010 by
expanding its smartphone lineup and building its own wireless-fidelity network.
SK Telecom will release 15 smartphone models this year, with as many as 13 models
running on Google Inc.'s Android system, to better respond to growing wireless
Internet usage, the company said in a release.
"We plan to find a breakthrough to new growth with the wireless data business,"
Ha Sung-min, head of the mobile network operator, told a news conference. He
added that SK will spend 30 billion won (US$27 million) on Wi-Fi this year and
100 billion won next year.
SK will build its own Wi-Fi network selectively on populated spots in major
cities, but Ha said his company will come up with further details on the project
next month.
The Wi-Fi network has become a mainstream standard for high-speed wireless
Internet connections and enables users to access the Internet from laptop
computers or mobile devices when they are near a base station, known as
"hotspots."
KT Corp., the country's second-biggest mobile carrier and the sole carrier of
Apple Inc.'s iPhone in the domestic market, has its own wireless service known as
Nespot.
ylee@yna.co.kr
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