Cooperation in Telematics
- SK Telecom, Renault Samsung Motor enter agreement to improve telematics on cars

SKTelecom signed with Renault Samsung Motor Co. a business tie-up in the matters of telematics last month. The companies signed the memorandum of understanding for mutual promotion of telematics in April, 2002 and has since maintained a strong cooperative relationship, leading to for the first time, developing the embedded-type NATE Drive(INS300).
SK Telecom plans to continue make improvements on Before Market telematics service's platform and infrastructure and in the first half, the company will develop and market an improved version of NATE Drive(INS700), as a driving guide with leisure and life functions.
In the first half of next year, they will develop and market NATE(INS700), a high-tech embedded-type with DMB service on SM7 model of Renault Samsung, which will also be equipped with a 7-inch LCD monitor system.
SK Telecom has secured 260,000 subscribers for its NATE Drive service(After Market) since the company launched it in March 2000. The company has been trying to expand the market for NATE Drive service ever since the launching by lowering fees and expanding services.
SK Telecom has been supplying the telematics service on an international level on Jeju Island since the city was named as a model city for telematics in September last year. The company plans to activate the telematics Before Market taking advantage of its experience, platform technology and operation know-how.
Director Lim Kyu-kwan, head of SK Telecom Solution Business Headquarters, said telematics will bring synergistic effect in a wide range of business areas not only to mobile communication, automobiles, but also to mobile business transactions, tourism, finance, and broadcasting, among others,
"SK Telecom will strive forward to strengthen its telematics business so that it would be a new growth engine for the company and the national economic growth."
On March 1, SK Telecom marked its initial year anniversary since setting up and putting into operation its Chinese joint venture telecom firm, UNISK in Beijing, China. UNISK is the first joint-venture telecommunication firm with foreign capital in China set up in February, last year, between Unicom China and SK Telecom, which launched the wireless Internet service on March 1 last year.
The joint venture firm has already secured over 200,000 subscribers, although its been in operation for only a year and the company was said to have secured already a base to be among top wireless Internet providers with its market share for VM(virtual machine) market amounting to 17 percent.
SK Telecom said UNISK has been able to secure a high standing in the market due to its well-designed marketing strategy built around a variety of services not confined to contents only including WAP, SMS, and IVR(Interactive Voice Response) provided by SK Telecom, higher-quality services than those provided by its local rivals.
In the meantime, UNISK introduced some 40 digital contents in China's Internet market in cooperation with 12 CP firms from the early stage of its operation.
SK Telecom's move was considered to be the first one for a big Korean telecommunication firm to secure a base in China and penetrate China's wireless Internet market along with smaller CP companies.
Those small CP companies have been able to do business in China, thanks to SK Telecom, which in turn was able to provide the highest level Internet service in China through its joint venture UNISK in shortest possible time.
UNISK President Lee Soo-hyuk said the company should be able to expand the number of subscribers to around 500,000 this year by providing new services such as Coloring Plus, Photo Portal, among others, and increase its market share. The company will be able to register $2.5 million in sales revenue this year, which is a break-even point and become a leading operator in China's wireless Internet.
China has 300 million mobile phone subscribers, making the country the largest mobile phone market in the world with the prospect for a big jump in the wireless Internet market, which would allow continuous exports to China by Korean firms taking advantage of their superior Internet technology. nw