BUNDANG, Gyeonggi Province ― SK Telecom, the country’s top mobile carrier, tested the fourth generation telecommunications technology Long Term Evolution for the first time at its Bundang office on Tuesday.Aiming to commercialize the LTE technology in Seoul by July, the company will offer next generation telecommunications services which come with upgraded speed and picture quality.It will then ma

ALICANTE, Spain ― The global trade show IFA to be held from Sept. 2-7 in Berlin is expected to grow 10 percent in size this year, said an executive of the organizing body Messe Berlin on Saturday.Jens Heithecker, IFA executive director at Messe Berlin, said the exhibition space ― 5,000 to 10,000 square meters more than last year’s 134,000 square meters ― has already been completely booked out duri

Christian Goke, chief operating office of Messe Berlin, speaks to reporters about the global trade show IFA at a global press conference in Alicante, Spain on Saturday. Cho Ji-hyun/The Korea HeraldSamsung, LG to step up 3-D TV business in Europe, but face skepticism from consumersALICANTE, Spain ― Smart innovation and green technology are expected to dominate the IFA, one of the world’s top electr

Korea’s leading portals Naver and Daum, said they would file a complaint to the Fair Trade Commission against Google as early as this week.“We’ve been on the same page on the issue and we’re currently considering asking state authorities to conduct an investigation against Google,” said Daum’s spokeswoman Jung Ji-eun. “We will make the final call (whether to submit the complaint) as early as this

Details of mobile advertising are unveiling as the number of smartphone owners has surpassed the 10 million mark and is expected to reach 20 million by the end of this year.Google Korea is currently considered a leader in mobile advertising business, moving ahead with its global platform, followed by the country’s telecoms ― SK Telecom, LG Uplus and KT ― which all declared to play a role in the ma

Popular mobile messenger service breaks threshold of 10 million downloadsKakao, a venture firm that invented the popular mobile messenger app Kakao Talk last year, announced Monday that it will branch out to overseas markets this year with the aim of garnering 100 million downloads.In a press conference celebrating more than 10 million registered Kakao Talk users, its founder Kim Beom-su said the

Just a week ago at the world mobile trade show in Barcelona, global software giant Microsoft stunned many by announcing its alliance with Nokia, the world’s No. 1 handset maker.Following the international event, Microsoft Korea told reporters in a media briefing in Seoul on Monday that the new Windows Phone 7 will be available here as early as October.“Internally, we’re happy about our new allianc

Getting connected to the Web on a smartphone, while simultaneously watching a show on a smart TV is becoming a common scene for many people nowadays as the country enters a “one-person-multi-device era.”The number of people who own multiple smart gadgets ― such as smartphones, tablet PCs and smart TVs ― is rapidly increasing, pushing telecoms to introduce N-Screen (numerous screen) services which

LG Uplus said Thursday it introduced a wireless N-Screen service which enables sharing of data on multiple platforms for mobile phones, tablet PCs, televisions and personal computers.The company said people could easily use the service, dubbed “Uplus Shoot and Play,” by downloading the application on their devices without uploading content or making other inter-device connections.The service is cl

LG Electronics and KT SkyLife announced a tie-up involving 3-D content on Wednesday, declaring the two will commercialize the service by the first half of next year.LG Electronics, the world’s second-biggest flat-screen television maker, said that it would feature 3-D content developed by the digital satellite broadcaster on the company’s 3-D TVs.As an initial step, the electronics manufacturer wi

The country’s two major electronics manufacturers said Wednesday they will aggressively target the Chinese market this week by introducing this year’s new line-up of 3-D televisions and wireless gadgets at an expo in Shanghai.Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics both showcased a variety of gadgets ― focusing on high-end smart TVs and smartphones ― in separate events in China.This is a move taken

Regulator to sell rights to 2.1 GHz spectrum this year; major firms keen on acquiringKorean telecom carriers are engaged in a high-stake competition to win a new wireless broadband spectrum which the state media regulator Korea Communications Commission is to put on auction this year. Auctioning of the 2.1 gigahertz radio spectrum was part of the revised radio regulation law passed by the National

Global digital media firm Glam Media launched a website in Korean last week.As a network of sites targeting women, the website offers information ranging from beauty, fashion, style, celebrity and lifestyle, enabling its visitors to access a variety of information in a single visit.It also partnered with well-known global magazines such as Marie Claire and Luxury to provide content most frequently

KT Corp., the country’s biggest fixed-line service operator, said Sunday that 20,000 of its workforce will take part in the company’s “smart working” program starting this month.The company said it will encourage more people to participate in the flexible working system as it brought positive outcomes such as an increase in productivity in a group that has tested the system since last September.Ea

Industry watchers predict earnings surprise for Kia, record profits for S-Oil, SK InnovationKorean carmakers and oil refineries are expected to report strong first-quarter performances this month on rising demand and favorable external conditions. The results for steel, electronics and construction sectors are likely to be disappointing, analysts say.Ahead of the April earnings season, market watc

Three major telecom operators submitted applications to the government on Thursday for reassignment of frequency bandwidths to offer the current 2G communication services and prepare for the next generation of network technologies.As the 10-year period for the frequency band expires in June, SK Telecom, KT Corp. and LG Uplus said they asked the Korea Communications Commission for the frequency ban

GreenTouch, a global consortium of wireless service operators, research institutions and non-governmental groups, said Thursday it would hold a forum on sustainable networks and climate change in Seoul next week.The forum, which will take place at Seoul National University on April 8, will unveil the scope of key GreenTouch projects and showcase a proof of concept technology called the GreenTouch

Telecom carriers are wrestling with the surging popularity of free mobile messengers increasingly jamming networks and snatching away data fees. One option being considered may be blocking or limiting the use of the likes of widely-popular Kakao Talk, which is replacing the voice and text messaging functions at a faster speed. “We have been basically reviewing the impact of social services like Ka

Samsung Group, the country’s top conglomerate, said Wednesday that it will strengthen legal compliance within the first half of this year by upgrading training sessions for its executives.In a weekly meeting of the group’s presidents, Kim Sang-kyun, Samsung’s president of legal and compliance office, said the group plans on completing all preparations for compliance operations by June. He also ask

Memory chipmaker looks to growth in non-PC sector including mobile, graphic, server DRAMHynix Semiconductor Inc., the world’s second-largest maker of computer memory chips, looks to new growth opportunities in specialty products in the premium market.The company’s premium product line-up in the non-PC sector, which includes mobile, graphic and server dynamic random access memory (DRAM), is expecte