SK Telecom is embracing mobile VoIP as part of an updated mobile broadband strategy that also includes unlimited data plans and an accelerated LTE rollout timetable.
At a press conference in Seoul Wednesday, SKT president and CEO Jung Man-Won said that the cellco’s All-In-One 55/65/80/95 Plans and Number One Plan voice/data packages will include unlimited data and mobile VoIP.
Subscribers who sign up for m-VoIP packages can use any VoIP client (such as Skype) over SKT’s 3G network.
The catch: while Web surfing and downloads will be all-you-can-eat, mobile VoIP usage will be metered and capped.
For example, subscribers to the All-In-One 55 plan will be allocated 200MB for m-VoIP apps, which SKT says works out to around 1,000 minutes. The highest-priced plan allows 700MB for m-VoIP, or 3,500 minutes.
“If we allow subscribers to use unlimited data to use m-VoIP, then network overload may result,” an SKT spokesperson told telecomasia.net. “Therefore, to ensure stable network operation, we decided to allow a certain amount of data for m-VoIP use.”
Jung admitted that m-VoIP had been disallowed in the past due to fears that it “might act as a disincentive to carriers to make investments and hinder industrial development.”
However, Jung said an “extensive review of the technological environment, customers’ data usage patterns and cases of foreign companies” found that m-VoIP would “have a positive effect on customer retention” by offering greater customer satisfaction.
SK Telecom is the latest of a small but growing number of cellcos who are biting the bullet and allowing VoIP over their mobile networks.
VoIP player Skype has been laboring to change that mindset since November 2009 when it released a study from CCS Insight demonstrating that 3 UK’s partnership with Skype had boosted traditional voice minutes and text messages rather than cannibalize them, and reduced churn in the bargain.
Industry analysts have also been making a case for mobile VoIP. Ovum warned cellcos in a May report that they had more to gain from embracing VoIP than blocking or ignoring it. Frost & Sullivan projects mobile VoIP to generate almost $30 billion by 2015. And Juniper Research says mobile VoIP traffic will double each year between 2010 and 2015.
Meanwhile, Jung said SKT would launch 21-Mbps HSPA+ services in Seoul this month and boost spectrum efficiency to stabilize data traffic via a six-sector solution that doubles the number of sectors per base station.
The six-sector strategy is also what will allow SKT to offer all-you-can-eat data plans at a time when other cellcos are moving away from them due in part to capacity constraints, said Jung.
SKT says that a mere 1% of its data users are generating 54% of its data traffic thanks to the growing popularity of smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S.
SKT will also launch commercial LTE services in Seoul next year, with plans to expand the service nationwide by 2013. SKT will launch LTE data modems in 2011 and dual-mode HSPA/LTE devices by 2012.
SKT also accelerated its Wi-Fi hot-spot strategy, saying it will create 15,000 “T Wi-Fi Zones” nationwide by the end of 2010 – about 50% more than initially planned at the beginning of this year.
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