(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
|
|
| Internet Phone Users on the Rise in Korea
|
|
December 21, 1998 (SEOUL) -- International calls via the Internet are
surging in Korea because the price is 60 percent less than that of ordinary
telephone calls.
|
This is hurting key telecommunication service operators such as Korea
Telecom and Dacom Corp., industry watchers here said.
According to documents of the Ministry of Information and Communications,
Internet phone service providers, which borrow network lines mainly
from Korea Telecom, saw a 50 percent rise in sales every month this
year, while their total operating earnings nearly doubled to 3.41 billion
won last August from 1.69 billion won in June.
In September and October, Internet call service providers' earnings grew
by 100 percent to 15.6 billion won.
By company, SK Telecom earned the largest income of 1.6 billion won as
of last August, followed by LG Distribution at about 1.6 billion and
Inet Telcom at 1.4 billion.
"Since the economic crisis began, companies prefer cheaper phone service
providers," said a board member of Korea Telecom. "Yet, they are not
our competitors, because they borrow our lines."
Industry watchers expect Internet call service providers to expand their
market share to 13 percent from the current 3 percent by 2002.
(Maeil Business Newspaper, Korea)
<Visit News Center for more Asian news.>
|
|
|
