LG-Korea Telecom submits IMT-2000 plan

Both LG and Korea Telecom, which are challenging for the IMT-2000 projects, have submitted a plan for an asynchronous system, so it will be inevitable to confront with the government, which expected applications for a synchronous system.

SK Telecom also is expected to apply for an asynchronous IMT-2000 business plan, so the three carriers are likely to compete fiercely for two licenses.

In this connection, the government held a series of meetings and confirmed its position to nominate more than one carriers as synchronous service providers, signifying that one carrier will drop out of the race.

In its business plan, the consortium led by Korea Telecom said that Korea Telecom has a 43.5% stake while Korea Telecom Freetel and Korea Telecom M.com will have a10% and 15% ownership in the consortium. The rest will be shared among its affiliating companies.

LG reported that its 767-company consortium will be led by LG Electronics with four basic telecommunications carriers, and 113 telecommunications equipment and component manufacturing companies participating. The government is expected to make its final decision by the end of December.

Meanwhile, the government and the ruling Millennium Democratic Party reconfirmed that more than one synchronous IMT-2000 system would be designated with Information-Communications Minister Ahn Byung-Yup, Rep. Chung Se-Kyun, chairman of the ruling party's second policy coordination committee and members of the National Assembly's Science, Technology and Information Communications Committee participating.

Kim Tae-Han freewill@donga.com