DoCoMo withdraws from Korean talks

date: October 30, 2001 - source: Siemens UMTS NewsDesk

South Korea's SK Telecom has denied a report that stated the two-year negotiations between itself and DoCoMo were about to collapse. "The report is totally false," said Daniel Lee, a spokesman for the SK Group. He continued: "We're actually hoping to wrap up the talks by the end of this year." An article appeared last week that stated the talks were about to break down over SK's reluctance to adopt W-CDMA, of course SK holds one of two W-CDMA licenses for the country.

However, the company has said that it is to delay the launch of W-CDMA until 2003. It has also been claimed that DoCoMo is anxious to get its FOMA service up and running in Korea as soon as possible. SK is currently running CDMA 1x, which is proving successful and is probably one reason for the delay.

The article, which was incorrectly reported in the media, claimed that the deal is "99.9 per cent off".

DoCoMo is hoping to secure around 15 per cent stake in Korea's no.1 mobile operator. DoCoMo had said when it launched FOMA that one of its objectives was to increase its global reach shifting from domestic only services, a withdrawal from the talks would seriously undermine that strategy. Lee said: "We are still very keen to continue negotiations with DoCoMo."

It is believed that a deal between the two companies would be particularly beneficial for both as the two countries are neighbours and there are many business executives who travel between the two. Both countries are to jointly hold the football World Cup in the summer of 2002.

SK Telecom is currently in the progress of finalising the takeover of the nation's third-largest mobile carrier, Shinsegi Telecom.

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