{"id":85466,"date":"2011-01-31T22:03:11","date_gmt":"2011-01-31T14:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/kt-expects-new-satellite-to-drive-second-market-boom-after-iphone-success\/"},"modified":"2011-01-31T22:03:11","modified_gmt":"2011-01-31T14:03:11","slug":"kt-expects-new-satellite-to-drive-second-market-boom-after-iphone-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/kt-expects-new-satellite-to-drive-second-market-boom-after-iphone-success\/","title":{"rendered":"KT Expects New Satellite to Drive Second Market Boom After iPhone Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

[01-31-11] South Korean operator Korea Telecom<\/strong> (KT) is hoping to attract more attention to the country\u2019s market with its commercial high-definition digital imagery and 3-D programming services offering following the December launch of its Olleh-1 satellite.
\n    Olleh-1 will take over primary services formerly provided by KT\u2019s 11-year-old Mugunghwa-3 satellite, which now will be used as backup.
\n    KT Director of Satellite Business Kwon Yeong-Mo spoke with Satellite News<\/em> about what the satellite will offer and how the company hopes to build a reputation as an Asian market leader over the next 15 years.<\/p>\n

\nSatellite News: What role will Olleh-1 play in your strategy for the Korean market?<\/h2>\n

Yeong-Mo<\/strong>: We\u2019ve launched four broadcast and communication satellites over the past 16 years, including Olleh-1. Before the new satellite, we only had one in operation. Olleh-1 enables us to provide much higher-quality commercialized services with the ability to continuously enhance them. This is our first step in our long-term plans to be a global satellite service operator.<\/p>\n

\nSatellite News: What areas are you targeting for expansion, and how do you plan on penetrating these new markets?<\/h2>\n

Yeong-Mo:<\/strong> We would first like to extend our presence in other Asian countries. By 2013, we hope to establish partnerships with other international satellite companies that will provide us access to the Middle East and African regions. We hope to build momentum in those markets by using some of the momentum we\u2019ve generated in the Korean smartphone market. In Korea, we\u2019re the exclusive supplier of Apple iPhones. We understand that we would not enjoy that status in the other international markets, but we\u2019re hoping that we can provide an attractive offering and a variety of services. The partnerships are what we\u2019re primarily focused on right now, and we hope to announce some new agreements within the next few months.<\/p>\n

\nSatellite News: KT reported a profit in its fourth quarter after steep losses in 2009. What were some of the factors involved in the turnaround?<\/h2>\n

Yeong-Mo:<\/strong> Most of our difficulties came from unexpectedly high labor costs and a decline in our fixed-line services. The surge in iPhone sales certainly helped. Our handset sales increased 54 percent last year, bringing in almost $1 billion to the company. We also implemented per-second voice call billing. All of these factors helped us generate $94.3 million in profits by the end of the year after spending the last 12 months trying to cut our expenses. Unfortunately, this meant job cuts and early retirement programs, but the fact that we\u2019re now generating a profit after almost $400 million in losses in 2009 is a huge confidence boost for us. We\u2019re now looking to build off of that and start growing again.
\n <\/p>\n

Satellite News: Do you expect that handset sales will continue to serve as your primary growth driver?<\/h2>\n

Yeong-Mo:<\/strong> Definitely. It\u2019s important to understand that we rode the wave of a Korean market boom last year with the introduction of the iPhone to South Korea. Obviously, we expect to see increased sales of the iPhone in 2011 as Korean customers continue to flock to that product. We also believe that we will meet analysts\u2019 expectations for increased wireless data traffic. The iPhone accounts for two-thirds of our total smartphone subscriber base, and when you have a flagship product that strong, you make up for lost ground. That lost ground for us was the fact that we had one operational satellite, but even with that one satellite, we still increased our wireless data sales by 30 percent over last year. Olleh-1 will help us build on this trend as well as help us rebuild our product portfolio so that we\u2019re not as dependent on one market.<\/p>\n

\nSatellite News: What are the next steps in building on that momentum?<\/h2>\n

Yeong-Mo:<\/strong> By the end of 2011, we hope to launch about 25 new handset and about seven tablet devices, such as the iPad, to the market. We are hoping this will further the distance between our competitors. We\u2019re slowly gaining a larger and larger share of the Korean data and smartphone market, and we\u2019re seeing our competitors trying to keep up with us instead of the other way around. The most valuable aspect of the Korean market is that once you establish that momentum with consumers, you can find yourself at the front of the pack very quickly. That is why we must continue to keep up our pace and attract positive attention in our efforts to form outside partnerships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[01-31-11] South Korean operator Korea Telecom (KT) is hoping to attract more attention to the country\u2019s market with its commercial high-definition digital imagery and 3-D programming services offering following the December launch of its Olleh-1 satellite.     Olleh-1 will take over primary services formerly provided by KT\u2019s 11-year-old Mugunghwa-3 satellite, which now will be used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85466"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}