KTF to Solidify Position
in 3G WCDMA Market

'SHOW'subscribers have already surpassed the 3 million mark

KTF Co., the nation's second largest mobile carrier, is striving to solidify its position as the leader in the domestic 3G WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) cellular network market.
In his New Year's message, KTF President and CEO Cho Young-chu has confirmed his company's determination to firm up its leading position in the market with the brand 'SHOW,'which uses the nationwide High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) service.
Cho said, "In the past year, we have been galloping with unswerving determination to rank first in the WCDMA market, and we hope to continue to grow."In order to maintain the No. 1 position in the WCDMA market and strengthen its competitive edge, he said, KTF will have to break the mold in every field, including services, handsets, distribution network and ties-up by introducing a new competitive system designed to differentiate itself from others.
To this end, KTF plans to build up its innovative collaborations with its parent KT Group and other industry players.
The president said KTF will make efforts to secure handsets with a competitive edge in the Korean and overseas markets, which have an impact on improving its competitiveness.
The KTF president urged his staff to find new ways in such areas as direct sales and solutions with a new way of thinking and an aggressive approach, saying that a 1 million-seller handset would be better than 10 different handsets that each sell 100,000 units.
In addition to a strategy to step up the competitiveness of the SHOW brand, KTF will accelerate its efforts to explore new growth engines in order to realize Vision 2015, Cho said.
To this end, KTF plans to develop successful business models in such areas as search, entertainment, commerce and financing through open-minded tie-ups and anticipative equity investments.
In particular, Cho said, KTF will redouble its efforts to have synergistic effects with KT, which is striving to evolve into an integrated corporation, while accelerating its efforts to push ahead with the U-Mobile project, which serves as a bridgehead in its entry into the global market. KTF and NTT DoCoMo of Japan acquired a 33 percent interest in U-Mobile, Malaysia's newest mobile 3G service provider, this past December.
The number of SHOW subscribers surpassed the 1 million mark on July 6, a little more than four months after the nationwide HSDPA coverage was launched on March 1. That number shot up to 3 million this past Dec. 19.
KTF believes SHOW owes its brilliant performance to a competitive edge with better and newer services than the existing G-2.5 CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) service.
KTF's 3G mobile service SHOW emerges as a great boon to its business performance. KTF saw its sales surge a whopping 193 percent last year over the previous year and the number of users climb by 145 percent.
Most of the SHOW subscribers are tech-savvy trendsetters who are willing to pay for the latest mobile gadgets and services. A survey indicates that by age, those in their 20s accounted for 23.2 percent of SHOW subscribers, topping the list, followed by 22.2 percent in their 30s and 19.6 percent in their teens.
The SHOW brand also enjoys popularity due to its global roaming service.
Currently, the number of foreign countries where KTF offers roaming service has surged to 132. Revenue from roaming service usage is growing at an explosive pace.
KTF unveiled 'SHOW'on March 1, 2007. The WCDMA service, which was successfully commercialized by KTF and SK Telecom in the first half of 2006, can offer such diverse services as video calling and global roaming by capitalizing on the data transmission speed that is as much as 15 times faster than the existing CDMA service. nw

KTF President and CEO Cho Young-chu