SKT to give WiBro a KRW117 billion boost

South Korea’s leading wireless operator SK Telecom (SKT) plans to invest KRW117 billion (USD125.8 million) to expand coverage of its Wireless Broadband (WiBro — 802.16e) service in 2007. The investment is part of SKT’s guidance of a KRW1.6 trillion CAPEX plan next year.

According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, WiBro technology has failed to make a significant impact on the market since SKT launched the world’s first services at the end of June and take-up has been slow due to limited network coverage and stiff competition from high speed cellular services such as 1xEV-DO, W-CDMA and HSDPA. According to the latest available figures in local press reports, SKT had signed up just 15 WiBro subscribers by the end of August. Its rival KT Corp had 479 WiBro users at the date.