The Korea Communications Commission said Thursday that it decided not to allow a fourth telecom to establish in the local market due to its lack of business strategies and funding abilities.During the weekly general meeting, commissioners of the state-run telecom regulator rejected Korea Mobile Internet’s proposed project plan to take position as the fourth telecom.The commission also turned down

KT Corp., the country’s biggest wireless Internet zone operator, announced Wednesday that it plans to launch a project to help mobile application developers sell their products overseas.The “global frontier project” is a measure for the telecom giant to establish mutual growth with smaller venture firms. It supports talented mobile application developers from the development stage to when items ar

Lotte Mart’s ultra-cheap television has proved to be a hot item, with some of its branches selling out within hours of opening Wednesday.Lotte Mart officials said it began selling the 24-inch TVs, which cost less than 300,000 won ($268), at 89 of its branches across the nation from 9-10 a.m. Ultra-cheap 24-inch televisions on display at a Lotte Mart branch in Seoul (Yonhap News)Some customers queu

Company designates 2011 as the year for improved customer serviceTop executives of KT Corp., the country’s biggest fixed-line service operator, on Monday offered a rare gesture showing their commitment to customer satisfaction Its chairman Lee Suk-chae and two other top officials made foot stamps at the company’s Olleh Campus in southern Seoul. The company designated 2011 as the year for drastic i

Lotte Mart, one of the country’s biggest discount store chains, said Monday that it is putting a 24-inch television on sale at most of their branches for less than 300,000 won ($268).The company stirred controversy last year for selling ultra-cheap chicken, inviting criticism from smaller stores.In a joint effort with a local mid-size firm Moneual, Lotte Mart declared it will target the low-end TV

The state media regulator, Korea Communications Commission, on Friday approved public broadcaster KBS’s request to increase the monthly viewing fee by 40 percent to 3,500 won ($3).The decision was made during its general meeting from which two of the five commissioners walked out in protest.Households with television sets are all currently obliged to pay a fixed fee of 2,500 won under the Broadcas

Says firm’s next-generation 3-D focus will move from programming to servicesSamsung Electronics, the world’s No. 1 flat-screen television maker, plans to release a new series of full high-definition 3-D smart TVs, upping the ante in its rivalry with LG Electronics.Yoon Boo-keun, president of its visual display business, said Thursday that it will present the new television sets on Friday, changing

The country’s top electronics makers are attempting to make big investments in solar energy projects, designating them as a new future growth engine.At the EXPO Solar 2011 at the KINTEX in Gyeonggi Province on Tuesday, local electronics giants Samsung and LG Electronics both featured advanced solar modules which they claim are “highly efficient.”The event takes place as major firms have pledged ea

Competition among mobile messenger operators to get more fierceKim Ji-young was dumbfounded to find out that she had not used up all of her mobile text messages when she checked her monthly plan last month.It was unusual for the 30-year-old to be in this situation, for she would normally be charged 10,000 to 20,000 won ($8.88-$17.78) more per month, just on text message fees.When asked what kept h

LG Group said Monday that it would provide bilingual education to 400 children from multicultural backgrounds.In a joint effort with Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, the country’s fourth-largest conglomerate said that it would offer online bilingual education programs to 300 Chinese and 100 Vietnamese elementary school students this year.The group supported about 70 children from multicultura

Major telecoms, including Korea’s KT Corp. and SK Telecom, have moved a step closer to commercializing an open mobile applications platform established by a multinational alliance of telecoms and device manufacturers.At the global mobile industry show which launched in Barcelona Monday, local mobile carriers KT and SKT demonstrated some of their to-be-commercialized applications that follow the gl

Samsung Electronics unveiled the upgraded versions of its flagship smartphone Galaxy S and its tablet PC Galaxy Tab in an event one day before the launch of the global mobile industry show in Barcelona on Sunday.In an event called the “Samsung Mobile Unpack,” the world’s second-largest handset maker presented Galaxy S 2 and Galaxy Tab 10.1, while designating 2011 as the year of smart mobile device

Local firms are moving quickly to present their fourth-generation mobile communication network technology Long Term Evolution at the global mobile industry show in Barcelona this week.Samsung Electronics and KT Corp. announced on Sunday that they will cooperate with global chipmaker Intel to test the new LTE technology at the 2011 Mobile World Congress from Feb. 14-17.The next generation mobile co

Asiana Airlines, the country’s No. 2 air carrier, reported record high yearly sales of over 5 trillion won ($4.51 billion) in 2010, buoyed by the rising demand for flights, its officials said Thursday.The company said that it reached 5.07 trillion won in sales, an increase of over 30 percent from 2009, and 635.7 billion won in operating profit last year. Both figures are the highest the company ha

Google-made mobile platform spices up competition against Apple’s iPhoneThe number of people who own an Android-powered smartphone has reached 5 million since it was launched in the local market a year ago.Of the people who own smartphones running on the Android mobile operating system, SK Telecom had the highest number of subscribers ― 3.72 million. It was followed by KT Corp., the exclusive serv

Samsung Mobile Display is reportedly poised to supply liquid-crystal display panels for the next version of Apple’s iPad, industry sources said on Wednesday.According to sources, the company, established in January 2009, is in the final stage of talks on supplying its latest LCD panels for Apple’s iPad 2, which is expected to be released later this year.In response to such reports, a spokesman at

Imagine yourself using your smartphone to download a movie during a single bus journey.In addition to the longer time required to complete the download, one could consider himself or herself lucky if it is completed in a single go with the current third generation networks.The government announced late last month that the state-run Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute in Daejeon d

Tablet PCs, smartphones to dominate Mobile World Congress next weekLocal electronics giants are lining up their cutting-edge mobile products for a global industry show in Barcelona, Spain next week.New tablet PCs and smartphones are expected to dominate the Feb. 14-17 Mobile World Congress, which is expected to draw more than 1,300 firms from all over the world.LG Electronics, which has been geari

Chinese women took up the largest portion of foreign wives married to Korean men in 2009, government data said Sunday.According to Statistics Korea, a total of 11,364 Chinese women married Korean men in 2009, while 7,249 Vietnamese and 1,643 Filipina women walked down the aisle with Korean men in the same year.They were followed by Japanese, Cambodian, Thai, American and Mongolian wives, numbering

Samsung Electronics announced it released the Wave 2 smartphone, operating on its proprietary mobile operating system Bada, for the first time here on Sunday, while making moves to gain a bigger share in the mid-tier smartphone market.Serviced by SK Telecom, Wave 2 is equipped with a 3.7-inch super clear liquid-crystal display screen and a 5 million pixel camera and presents digital multimedia bro