KTF raises capex on the back of increased W-CDMA investment

South Korean mobile operator KTF Corp has upped its forecast capital expenditure for 2006 from KRW1.1 trillion to KRW1.2 trillion (USD1.27 billion), to reflect an increased investment in its 3G W-CDMA business, including the planned rollout of HSDPA services. KTF’s capex for 2005 was KRW713.8 billion.

KTF launched commercial W-CDMA services in Seoul and a number of major metropolitan areas in 2003, but has thus far failed to tempt the bulk of Korean subscribers to switch from CDMA2000 1xEV-DO, which it launched the previous year. In December 2005 KTF partnered with Japan’s NTT DoCoMo to jointly research, develop and promote W-CDMA technology. The cellco is also preparing for the launch of 3.5G services and earlier this year it struck a deal with Openwave Systems to jointly develop a next generation browser for W-CDMA and HSDPA handsets. The software, christened KUN3.0, will use Openwave's V7 Browser as its base and be capable of supporting WAP 2.0 and HSDPA technology. The first KUN3.0 enabled handsets will be commercially available by the end of 2006.