Korea: IMT-2000 Bidders Await Final Selection

date: 14th December 2000

As the government screening process for three licenses of the next- generation telecommunication service, or International Mobile Telecommunication (IMT-2000) is scheduled to be completed tomorrow, four would-be carriers are having a tough time at the end of this ``make-or- break'' race.

Four consortiums, led by Korea Telecom, LG Group, SK Group, and Hanaro Telecom, are competing for three IMT-2000 licenses, which mean promising business opportunities, though its profitability remains unclear.

The Ministry of Information and Communication, which is in charge of supervising the bidding process, announced last week that a panel of judges to fairly and qualitatively assess the business plans submitted by the four local telecom giants began its screening process.

``After cutting itself off from outside communication, an 18-member expert panel from civic organizations

and the telecom industry is now estimating each bidder's business plan and will continue to do so until the screening procedure is completed,'' said Kim In-sik, a ministry spokesman.

According to the ministry's bidding guidelines, it will select three types of operators: One that adopts a synchronous mode, another that adopts an asynchronous mode and one that can adopt either of the two modes.

Despite an expected backlash, KT, LG and SK stuck to an asynchronous mode, or wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA), while Hanaro remains the only bidder for synchronous mode or CDMA2000 technology.

There is little technological gap between the two modes, but wideband CDMA is the most common wireless standard and its market share reaches nearly 80 percent of the world. This third-generation telecommunication service enables users to enjoy voice, data, and video transmission to mobile handsets and other wireless devices.

Theoretically, Hanaro assumes that the consortium it leads will obtain one synchronous mode license, but it might not be picked because of its lack of experience in wireless telecommunication business.

He said that the screening measures were largely separated into two categories. Qualitative assessments account for 83 points out of the total 102, and 17-point quantitative assessment has allegedly been completed.

Industry analysts anticipated that three licenses will be decided based on qualitative assessment covering technological capabilities, business validity and each achievement for the third-generation technology, rather than the result of quantitative assessment, which centered on the financial conditions.

During two weeks after the submission of bidding notifications, the four applicants have spent busy days in an attempt to make their situations more favorable.

No matter which bidders are selected, Friday's announcement will represent an important moment for the development of the domestic wireless telecommunication industry.

The key question is whether a loser will accept the government's decision.It might ``politicize'' the selection process, analysts said.

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