Asia Pacific Mobile Analyst - BREW is main driver of 1xRTT platform, says KTF

Asia Pacific Mobile Analyst
Issue 78, 16 July 2002

Second-ranked Korean mobile operator KTF has smashed its own subs forecasts for its mobile data service Multipack, which uses Qualcomm's BREW operating system.

"There are more than 1 million Multipack users now," Y.S. Kim, director of Internet marketing for KTF, told MobileCommAsia on June 17.

KTF did not expect to break the 1 million-sub mark until July. Should the growth rate continue, KTF, which became the first operator to launch commercial mobile data services using the BREW platform on Nov. 9, could be well on its way to surpassing its year-end target of 2.8 million subs with BREW-enabled handsets.

"Multipack's ... icon-driven system and large library of content is the main driver of 1x and wireless data take-up," says Kim.

In number terms, of KTF's 2.53 million subs with 1xRTT handsets as of May 30, 738,000 had Multipack-enabled handsets, while the remainder were using black-and-white or color 1xRTT units without BREW. Market leader SK Telecom had 6.13 million subs with 1xRTT handsets vs. LG Telecom's 650,000.

Multipack had 200 content providers at end-May, producing 450 actual applications, including games, information, m-commerce, portal and video-on-demand services, says Kim. "We plan to expand this to 600 content products by the end of the year," he adds.

According to Qualcomm, KTF's BREW users downloaded 1.75 million BREW applications during May. There were seven different BREW handsets on the market in May.

Leading BREW applications downloads include karaoke, games and Togabi's VOD player.

America lags partly because only half of its adult population has cell phones, compared to 65 percent in Japan and 70 percent in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

In actual terms, KTF's data-service revenues were Won61.4 billion (US$51.1 million) in 1Q02.

Meanwhile, KTF's 2G total ARPU came in at Won27,780 at end-March vs. Won 45,849 for its Multipack users. Kim says Multipack subs generate almost five times higher data ARPU than 2G subs and that 1x data ARPUs are highest in the under-19 age group.

KTF has a "mobile Internet vision" for its voice and data revenues to approach Won7 trillion by 2005. At that point, the company forecasts that data ARPU will make up 24% of total revenues. Kim describes the target as a "very challenging job" compared with Ovum's expectation that 9.5% of revenues globally will come from data by 2005.

M-commerce and 1xEV-DO are also key drivers to increase data revenues for the group. "M-commerce is one of the most important applications for KTF," says Kim, adding that KTF launched its K-merce in April.

"Later this year, we will launch phones with IC chips [for m-commerce applications]," he says.