Mobile operators moving to boost Wi-Fi services

The recent launch of the iPhone is spurring demand for wireless Internet service on mobile devices, prompting Korea’s mobile operators to boost their Wi-Fi investments.KT, Korea’s biggest telecom company, said that next year they plan to increase the number of Nespot zones in the nation. Nespot zones are public areas that provide free wireless Internet connections to anyone within the vicinity through Wi-Fi “access points.” At present, there are around 13,000 Nespot zones nationwide but the company plans to increase that to 50,000 to 60,000 by the end of next year. After 2005, the company stopped expanding the number of Nespot zones in the country as subscriber numbers dropped from 500,000 to 300,000.SK Telecom, which had also stopped investing in Wi-Fi zones, is considering investing in the wireless Internet service again, according to industry sources yesterday. “We are not currently at the stage where we can reveal the scale of our investment [in Wi-Fi], but we are looking into reinvesting in Wi-Fi networks,” said an SK Telecom official. LG’s telecom subsidiaries, which are in the process of merging, are also reportedly seeking to expand their Wi-Fi investments next year, under a plan to introduce a “fixed mobile convergence” service, which would offer subscribers both mobile and Internet phone services at a reduced price. According to JiWire, a U.S. mobile ad company, Korea is the seventh largest Wi-Fi provider globally, with 12,814 Wi-Fi hot spots. The U.S. was in first place with 67,420 zones, followed by China with 28,678. In Korea, most Wi-Fi hot spots are KT Nespot zones and more than half of them are located in universities. Last month, KT announced that it will launch Nespot services this month in 75 McDonald’s branches in and around Seoul under a deal with Hyundai Card. In the deal, Hyundai Card ads will pop up when customers log on in the designated Nespot zones. Meanwhile, KT also said that they will automatically register iPhone customers for their Nespot service. To access KT’s Nespot service in the past, customers had to go to a KT store to get an ID and password and then they had to go to KT’s home page and register. The company officially apologized for delayed shipments of iPhones to some customers and said that these customers will be provided with 500 megabits of free 3G wireless data service until February next year.

By Cho Jae-eun [jainnie@joongang.co.kr]