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SkTelecom posts

KT's Egg gives your WiFi device access to the wonderful world of WiBro

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Apr 27th 2009 at 10:39AM

Korea Telecom really wants to get you on the WiBro tip. The aptly-named (if a wee bit uninspired) Egg is essentially a router for connecting WiFi devices (such as the Nintendo DS or iPod Touch) to the company's wireless broadband network. According to the Korea Times, both KT and SK Telecom (the country's two main WiBro operators) have mere 170,000 WiBro customers total, "making a mockery" of its "most wired nation" aspirations -- so they can certainly stand to expand their customer base a little bit. Subscribers to the company's flat-rate data plan will get the device for free (trust us, they've paid enough). Or you can pick one up for yourself at the Apple store in Samseong-dong or Myeong-dong, the next time you're in Seoul. This guy should be hitting the shelves sometime in May for ₩220,000 (that's about $163).

[Thanks, Stafford]

LG goes insanely retro with Franklin Planner branding on SU100 phone

by Chris Ziegler posted Dec 7th 2008 at 9:01PM

What do an old-school paper day planner and a phone with a 3-inch OLED have in common? If you answered "absolutely nothing," you'd be correct -- but LG apparently didn't get the memo, because they've decided to grace their latest domestic superphone, the SU100, with the rather unusual Franklin Planner branding. Besides the presumably gorgeous display, other totally un-Franklin features include a 3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and an S-DMB TV tuner, which should all make for a nice, smooth transition for anyone still committing appointments and contacts to paper in the year 2008. The SU100's launching on South Korea's SKT for about 700,000 won ($475) with a white version following on next month.

Virgin Mobile formally seals the deal on Helio acquisition

by Darren Murph posted Aug 22nd 2008 at 1:55PM

We know, the little possibility that the whole deal could fall apart has been keeping you wide awake for months, but at long last, you can push aside your anxiety and hit the sack. Virgin Mobile USA announced today that it had "completed its acquisition of Helio," and all of the terms put forth on June 27th were used in the final close. Aside from garnering all the necessary regulatory approvals, Helio shareholders SK Telecom and EarthLink have received 13 million shares of Virgin Mobile USA Class A common stock, with a value of around $38 million. It's also noted that both SK Telecom and Virgin Group will each invest a cool $25 million in Virgin Mobile USA for preferred shares. And then, there was one.

SK Telecom still interested in scooping up Sprint?

by Chris Ziegler posted Jul 15th 2008 at 4:20PM

Some particularly juicy rumors die hard, and this one certainly qualifies: CNBC is reporting that SK Telecom is looking to hook up with some private equity firms to buy out Sprint Nextel, though a deal is "not imminent." This one's been making the rounds since last year, though it's possible that SKT sees some new impetus for making a break into the US market now that it's sold off its share in Helio -- and buying the third largest carrier in the country would certainly qualify as "making a break." It's claimed that SKT's only interested in completing a friendly deal -- no crazy hostile takeovers here -- and some of Sprint's board members aren't keen on the idea at this point, so it's definitely a hit-or-miss proposition. If this all means we can get even half of Korea's domestic hardware on US airwaves, then hey, no complaints on this end.

Update: The Wall Street Journal is now suggesting that Sprint and SKT are investigating some sort of joint venture -- not a full-on acquisition -- that would see the lovebirds work together on handsets and services. Possible, but we're curious to know what exactly Sprint brings to the table in that equation. Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Helio stores shutting down

by Nilay Patel posted Jun 26th 2008 at 10:04PM

The future of Helio is still up in the air -- one minute it's about to be sold to Virgin, the next the Ocean 2 is popping up in videos -- and it looks like this week will end with some equally ambiguous news: Helio stores appear to be shutting down. That's the word according to Fierce Wireless, which took this shot of a Helio store in Denver with a sign in the window that reads "The Helio Store is closed. Contact their customer support." Hmm, that sounds like some part of Helio is going to keep running -- hopefully we'll find out how this soap opera ends sometime soon.

Helio sale to Virgin Mobile could happen this week?

by Chris Ziegler posted Jun 25th 2008 at 3:02AM

Do you hear that, Helio? That [cue Sir Richard Branson's soothing voice] is the sound of inevitability. Rumors have been swirling for a few weeks now that SK Telecom -- Helio's majority owner -- is getting ready to cut, run, and offload its share to Virgin Mobile, rolling the scrappy MVNO into the one and only virtual network in the US that's been met with substantial, quantifiable success (more recent stock woes notwithstanding). Now, the Financial Times is reporting that a deal is cued up and ready for a public introduction as early as this week. The sooner, the better, because tons of questions remain about the fate of subscribers and the introduction of the pretty hotly anticipated Ocean 2, a device that at one time could've been Helio's savior; too late for that now, we guess.

Virgin Mobile: okay, yeah, we're talking to SK Telecom

by Chris Ziegler posted May 14th 2008 at 12:30PM

Looks like Virgin Mobile USA and Helio parent SK Telecom didn't bother to get their stories straight before turning to the press over recent rumors that they've been talking marriage. Right on the heels of an SKT statement that talks of a Virgin Mobile takeover were "groundless," Virgin Mobile has come out with a super-brief statement saying something quite to the contrary -- that the two are, in fact, in "preliminary discussions" over "possible strategic opportunities." That's about as vague and unhelpful as it gets -- a level of vagueness that's really only saved for situations where something big is about to go down, actually. The MVNO goes on to say that it's gonna stay mum on the subject at this point unless "a definitive agreement is reached," but at least we know they're chatting.

[Via mocoNews]

New players team up with LiMo Foundation

by Chris Ziegler posted May 14th 2008 at 10:05AM

Following a new round of partnership announcements back in February, LiMo Foundation today added 8 new members, bringing the grand total to 40 -- and perhaps most notably, Verizon Wireless becomes the first American carrier to team up with the group and the Foundation's final board member (in other words, they seem to be taking this initiative pretty seriously). Other new players include South Korea's SK Telecom, France's SFR, Sagem, chipmaker Infineon, and Mozilla, suggesting that there'll be plenty of mobile Firefox support for LiMo's nascent platform. LiMo represents the largest Linux-based threat to Android's plans for world domination, having announced its initiative some time before Google while collecting a veritable who's-who of world players from NTT DoCoMo to manufacturers like LG and Motorola -- and with the depth of Verizon's commitment to this, evident by its nabbing of an actual board seat, we wouldn't be surprised to see LiMo-based products actually go beyond its Any Apps, Any Device initiative and get real on the carrier's official lineup.

SK Telecom says talk of Virgin Mobile takeover of Helio is "groundless"

by Donald Melanson posted May 12th 2008 at 3:54PM

Well, it looks like the struggling Helio may not be falling under the Virgin Mobile umbrella quite just yet, with the MVNO's parent company, SK Telecom, now calling such speculation ""groundless." An SK Telecom spokesperson further added that it was not in "any sort of talks" with Virgin and that it remains "committed" to Helio, although the company did seemingly leave the door open somewhat by saying it is "actively seeking opportunities" to expand its service in the U.S. Muddling the situation a bit further, Reuters reported on Friday that the two companies were in fact in "early talks" about a deal, although the source behind that story was apparently unable to confirm whether the deal was actually a merger or a purchase, or one of a number of "other possibilities."

Virgin Mobile looking to merge with Helio?

by Nilay Patel posted May 8th 2008 at 2:56PM

Times haven't been so great at Helio, but it looks like the troubled MVNO could be snapped up by Virgin Mobile. mocoNews did a little digging after Virgin's recent Q1 conference call, and says that the two companies are currently in merger talks. Since both companies use Sprint's network, the tech would be compatible, and the deal would give SK Telecom a way to keep Helio going as it tries to gain a foothold in the US market. Nothing's set in stone yet and the two companies aren't talking, but we'll definitely keep an eye on this one.

Helio's Sky Dayton steps down as CEO

by Joshua Topolsky posted Jan 28th 2008 at 8:28PM

Sky Dayton, founder and chairman of the phantasmagorical Helio, has announced that he's stepping down as CEO to become chairman of the board of the last-man-standing MVNO. Helio's new CEO will be Wonhee Sull, formerly the company's president and COO, and obviously a direct conduit to co-owner SK Telecom. "Helio has reached a point in its development where I feel the timing is right for this change... As we have for the past three years, the two of us will continue to define Helio's direction and future," said Dayton. Whether Sky's really ready to move on or not we'll never know, but it's certainly possible that the recent influx of cash (and increased ownership) from its Korean parents and dwindling marketshare of US MVNOs led SK to step in and get things on track.

Update: Lots of fun inaccuracies going on up in here, our bad. We ironed out the kinks, see above for the latest, correct edits to Helio's executive musical chairs.

DoCoMo and other Asian carriers eyeing FCC auction?

by Paul Miller posted Dec 11th 2007 at 6:15PM

Everybody is sworn to silence until the auction is over, so we won't be seeing much more information about this until it's all over in the spring of next year, but for now it's still fun to speculate. Business Week is doing quite a bit of that speculating as well, with word that DoCoMo, KDDI, SK Telecom and even China (through the T-Mobile and Global Tower invested Blackstone Group) could be chipping in a few billion here and there to spice things up for Google and friends in the 700MHz C Block auction. DoCoMo, which got burned in the US a while back with pre-Cingular AT&T Wireless, mentioned to Business Week that it'd be interested in partnering with Google for its wireless network, and the other carrier might not be talking but have to be at least considering the possibility of being involved in US wireless data in a big way, and KDDI has a history of being chummy with Google in Japan. The word is that average North American data service bills are less than $10 a month, and are expected to grow to $38+ a month by 2012 -- and who wouldn't want in on that action? As growth slows in Europe and Asia, it seems only natural for the innovators over there to head over here and kick things into gear, but we'll try not too far ahead of ourselves.

[Via The Inquirer]

SK Telecom effectively taking over Helio

by Nilay Patel posted Nov 9th 2007 at 2:02PM

We knew Earthlink and SK Telecom were both planning on reinvesting up to $100M each into struggling joint venture Helio back in July, and it looks like all that recent talk about "revised governance" was on point -- the deal will effectively shift management control of Helio away from Earthlink and to SKT for the first time in Helio's history. SKT has already allocated $70M to make the move, and it's also committed an additional $100M to future handset development and marketing. No word on what other changes SKT plans to make, but we'd happy to see Helio score a much-deserved second chance.

[Via MobileTech News]

SK Telecom handing over $270 million (more) to Helio

by Darren Murph posted Sep 21st 2007 at 3:31PM

As if receiving $200 million from SK Telecom and EarthLink back in July wasn't enough, Helio is now set to accept (up to) a $270 million check from SK Telecom. According to EarthLink, SK Telecom will "invest up to $270 million in Helio," and as expected, EarthLink was "very pleased" with the decision -- you know, considering that it won't be forced to cough up any more dough at the moment while still maintaining "substantial ownership interest in Helio's future." Most interesting, however, is the tidbit that mentions the parents' plans, as EarthLink and SK Telecom are reportedly "in discussions to amend their existing agreements to reflect the additional investment by SK Telecom and their future governance of Helio." Gotta pay to play, we suppose.

SK Telecom develops phone-controlled cleaning bot

by Joshua Topolsky posted Jul 27th 2007 at 6:59PM

SK Telecom, never wanting to be outdone by clever hackers in producing totally useless and bizarre devices that no one really needs, is in the final development stages on a Roomba-style robot that can be controlled by your mobile phone. The circular cleaning bot will be able to receive direction from a phone user on where to scrub, buff, and vacuum, while the controller views all of the exciting, floor-sweeping action on his or her cell phone via a built-in camera at the front of the bot. This should be the prefect product for those who feel the Roomba makes life too easy by cleaning a room on its own -- although it's possible that this technology could be adopted by legions of young men hoping to get a better look up women's skirts. Only time will tell.