Wibro turns into White Elephant

An interesting article on Wibro from the Korea Times: Wibro turns into White Elephant

Now, just two-and-a-half years into deployment, WiBro, which is short for “wireless broadband,” is looking more and more like a monumental letdown everyday

Wibro is a Mobile WiMAX predecessor, initiated by the Korean Government to boost Mobile WiMAX investment in Korea, and give a “headstart” to Korean vendors.

If the home-made WiBro goes international, it will bring new opportunities for Korean high-tech firms in royalty payments and equipment sales, and for this to happen, the local market for the service needs to get bigger.

According to the article, KT had only 180,000 customers, while SK Telecom only 11,000. And some more number:

Considering that KT and SK Telecom used 790 and 600 billion won, respectively, to build their WiBro networks and each needs to spend between 200 and 400 billion won more to expand coverage, a 300 billion won-plus market after seven years hardly qualifies as a consolation prize.

In a recent move, the Korean policymakers enabled operators to provide VoIP over WiBro, which is not likely to change the reality: WiBro has Failed

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