Fierce competition in one of the most technologically advanced market with the highest smartphone penetration, is forcing telecom operators to resort to “smarter options” to sell. For telecom operators this is a matter of survival in a highly competitive market. But, these “options” may not always be within the legal framework of the Government, and result in undesirable consequences. This is exactly what happened in Korea, where telecom operators are fighting to…

The much awaited global launch of Samsung Galaxy S5 missed its launch date. The launch planned on 11th April, was not delayed, but started selling 2 weeks ahead of schedule. This was pulled off by Samsung’s telecom and distribution partners in Korea – SK Telecom and KT. SK Telecom was the first to start selling the device on Thursday 27th March. Later, KT also decided to start selling, as it did not…

SK Telecom Co.,South Korea’s top mobile operator reported a two-fold growth in its Q4 profit in 2012. They claimed that this was due to a decrease in marketing costs – meaning what? The results come as the country’s three mobile operators ― SK Telecom, KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. ― have been slowing down their marketing drive recently amid the communications watchdog’s move to cool market competition. In December last year, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) fined the three firms a combined 11.9 billion won and imposed business suspensions for giving out excessive subsidies to lure LTE subscribers.