Korea Telecom CEO Proposes Revamping the KCC

As reported by The Korea Times, Lee, Suk Chae, Chairman and CEO of Korea Telecom said last week that The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) might not be the right organization to guide the country's information technology policies forward.  While talking with panelists at a weekly forum of the National Strategy Institute, he suggested that the KCC's committee-based decision-making structure makes it less effective as a developer of national IT strategies than its predecessor, the Ministry of Information and Communication.  "The KCC is a meaningful organization, but it is based on the wrong fundamental philosophy," he said.  Furthermore,

``The KCC was planned as a neutral, independent agency, but now the body that even has commissioners named from opposition political parties now have the power to regulate IT. Communications is part of administration, and should not be a commission-based organization, and this has to be changed.''

The KCC was inaugurated last year as the country's first converged regulator for telecommunications and broadcasting. Currently, a committee of five, including the KCC chairman and four commissioners, two of them named by the ruling political party and the other two by the opposition, is empowered to make decisions.

``The vice chairman post rotates from the commissioners selected from the ruling political party and the opposition. This means that the leader of the opposition party can become vice commissioner and have the rights to attend administrative meetings, which is not right,'' Lee said.

Mobile TV Penetration in Korea Reaches 22 million

The Korea Times reports that the number of Koreans subscribing to mobile TV services, both free and paid, has reached 22 million, or about 45 percent of the country's population.  TU Media, a unit of SK Telecom and the country's sole provider of pay satellite DMB services, reports that it now has 2 million customers, up from 1.3 million at this time last year.   The country's three mobile carriers, SK Telecom, KT and LG report that they have sole 20 million handsets equipped to receive free terrestrial DMB (digital multimedia broadcasting) telecasts.  Thusfar, South Korea's experience with DMB has proven several things in the marketplace:

• People will watch television on mobile devices.  The long commutes faced by many Koreans who live in urban areas no doubt contributes to this viewing.


• Although some people will subscribe to mobile television, in large numbers they prefer free, advertiser-supported services.


• Korea's terrestrial DMB operators are still not bringing in enough advertising revenue to support the service on a sustained basis

With such large numbers of viewers, it seems that mobile television is here to stay in the Korean market.  As we move into the era of mobile internet, television will also be part of that mix (e.g. CNN, BBC or Youtube video).

Chosun Ilbo: "Global Phone Makers Fail to Impress Koreans"

The headline of an article in the Chosun Ilbo English online edition tells you a great deal about how some people in Korea view the market for mobile telephone services here.  The gist of it is that makers of international phones are failing in the Korean market for lack of new models that come up to the standards set by Samsung and LG Electronics locally.  In fact, this is only a small part of the story.   The real news, as I've commented in earlier posts, is that mobile phones are rapidly being transformed into hand held computers with web browsers, as epitomized by Apple's iPhone.  I read the Chosun Ilbo article today shortly after reading a short New York Times article announcing that Nokia and Intel are partnering to work on mobile computing.  In observing Korea's mobile communications market today, several key realities should be kept in mind.

• It is still not possible to purchase and use an iPhone in South Korea, and may not be possible until late this year or early next.  This, despite the fact that slim new Android phones are being released in the U.S., Europe and around the world.


• Although most Koreans carry 3G cellphones capable of internet access, the two largest mobile services provide only a limited "walled garden" Korean database, rather than access to the full richness and variety of the web beyond the Korean language.


• Despite the above two points, many consumers here in Korea are eager to see the iPhone released in this market.  As evidence, take a look at sales of the iPod Touch, which almost functions as an iPhone if you're in one of the nation's many WIFI hotspots.  Millions of overseas Koreans, who already use the iPhone or Android phones to surf the web, must be lording it over on there relatives here in South Korea.  The word of mouth promotion alone is something Apple could never afford to pay for.

The pressure to catch up with the rest of the world will continue to mount.  The Korea Communications Commission seems to be nudging the mobile industry toward full openness and competition, which should be a good thing for Korea's export-oriented, ICT-based economy.  Delaying the iPhone is, as I mentioned in an earlier post, delaying the inevitable.