SK Telecom

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Image:SK Telecom logo.gif SK Telecom (Korean: SK텔레콤) Template:Kse Template:Nyse is a South Korean telecommunications and mobile phone operator controlled by the SK Group, one of the country's largest chaebol.

SK Telecom is the leading provider of mobile service in Korea, with around 50% of the market share as of 2005. It was branded as Speed 012 in the age of the pager, as the SK Telecom pagers had the area code 012. This was changed to Speed 011 when mobile phones became more popular around 1998, again 011 being the area code for SK phones. Now all mobile phones in Korea, regardless of provider, start with the area code 010. This was partly because SK Telecom had achieved such market dominance that the 011 number became a brand in itself and was considered a case of implicit advertising/product placement, which is banned in Korea. SK Telecom had to be separated from SK Teletech, as the fact that SK Teletech's Sky mobile phones were configured only for SK Telecom service.

In October 2000, SK Telecom became the second operator in the world behind NTT's DoCoMo to launch a commercial 3G service using WCDMA technology. In January 2002, this was followed up by launching the world's first CDMA2000 1xEV-DO network, offering greatly increased data transmission speeds.

In May 2005, SK Telecom decide to sell 60% of SK Teletech stock to Pantech Curitel. In 2006, SK Teletech is changed brand name into "SKY" and remains as Pantech Curitel's premium brand mobile phone line.

SK Telecom also offers a variety of internet services, many through its subsidiary SK Communications. Cyworld is one of the most popular blogging services in South Korea and NateOn is one of the most popular instant messengers.

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Helio

On January 26, 2005, SK Telecom announced that it had formed a new joint-venture with Earthlink to form a new US mobile carrier named Helio. Combined with Earthlink, Helio is expected to offer a variety of advanced mobile devices, many of which currently for sale in Korea. These models would be refined and updated for use by tech-savvy American consumers, allowing for the first time handsets with functionalities previously unavailable in the US market. The venture operates on the premise of being a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), using CDMA 1xEVDO network capacity leased from Sprint.

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