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SK Telecom

#1877

Rank

$8.86B

Marketcap

South Korea

Country

SK Telecom
Leadership team

Mr. Young Sang Ryu (CEO, Pres & Exec. Director)

Jinwon Kim (CFO & Head of Corp. Planning Group)

Mr. Heesup Kim (Head of Communications)

Products/ Services
Telecommunications
Number of Employees
1,000 - 20,000
Headquarters
Seoul, Seoul-t'ukpyolsi, South Korea
Established
1984
Company Registration
SEC CIK number: 0001015650
Net Income
500M - 1B
Revenue
Above - 1B
Traded as
SKM
Social Media
Overview
Location
Summary
SK Telecom Co., Ltd. provides wireless telecommunication services in South Korea. The company operates through three segments: Cellular Services, Fixed-Line Telecommunications Services, and Other Businesses. The Cellular Services segment offers wireless voice and data transmission, Internet of Things solutions, platform, cloud, smart factory solutions, subscription, and metaverse platform-based services, as well as sells wireless devices. The Fixed-Line Telecommunications Services segment provides fixed-line telephone services; broadband Internet services; media platform services, such as Internet protocol TV and cable TV; and business communications services. The Other Businesses segment offers television shopping services under the T-commerce brand, as well as portal services. In addition, it provides call center management, base station maintenance, information gathering and consulting, system software development and supply, quantum information and communications, data base and internet website, and digital contents sourcing services; manufactures and sells e-book; sells contents and mastering quality sound album; sells and trades in anti-theft and surveillance devices; and operates information and communications facilities. As of December 31, 2021, the company had 3.6 million fixed-line telephone and 31.9 million wireless subscribers. SK Telecom Company Limited was incorporated in 1984 and is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea.
History

SK Telecom was established in March 1984 under the name Korea Mobile Telecommunications Services Corp. , but was renamed Korea Mobile Telecommunications Corp. in May 1988. It was a subsidiary of the state monopoly phone company, Korea Telecom until KT sold it off in 1994. In June 1994 SK Group became Korea Mobile Telecommunications Corporation's largest shareholder. KMTC officially joined the SK Group in January 1997 and changed its name to SK Telecom in March of that year.In October 2000, SK Telecom became the second operator in the world after NTT DoCoMo to launch a commercial 3G service using W-CDMA technology. In January 2002, this was followed up by launching the world's first CDMA2000 1xEV-DO network, offering greatly increased data transmission speeds to preexisting 2G networks.In May 2005, SK Telecom divested 60 percent of SK Teletech stock to cellphone maker Pantech. SK remains the second largest shareholder by holding on to the rest of Teletech's stock.

In 2006, the well-known "SKY" brand of mobile devices became fully owned by Pantech as it finalized its takeover of SK Teletech.

1984–1993: Early Years

Founded on March 29, 1984, as Korea Mobile Telecommunications Services Corp., the state-owned carrier introduced pagers and car phones to the Korean market. May 1984 saw the launch of the car phone service. Korea Mobile changed its name to Korea Mobile Telecommunications Corp. in May 1988. In July, AMPS cellular network was initially launched in Seoul metropolitan area. By 1991 nationwide coverage was complete.In April 1993, the South Korean government, through KMTC, adopted CDMA as the national cellular telephone system.

1994–1996: Privatization and the CDMA standard

Through privatization, SK Group became Korea Mobile Telecommunications Corp.'s largest shareholder in June 1994.In October 1994, Korea's first CDMA system was introduced to the public for the first time.In January 1995, KMTC reached the one million subscriber mark. Korea Mobile Telecommunications became the third Korean firm to be listed on the NYSE exchange in June 1996. Later that year South Korea got its first commercial CDMA network. Operating in Seoul in October, it is considered one of the world's earliest commercial CDMA networks.

1997–2000: International expansion

SK Group completed its takeover of KMTC in January 1997, as it became the world's sixth carrier to attain ten million subscriptions. Around that time, it also began constructing the Northeast Asian CDMA belt encompassing China, Japan, Vietnam, and the rest of the Asian continent.In March 1997, to reflect new changes, KMTC changed its name to SK Telecom, and in October, NetsGo, an online service, was launched.In June 1998, SK Telink, the international call service division, started offering commercial overseas call service. In December 1998, SK Teletech launched its first handset. In April 1999, SK Telecom entered the Mongolian market by co-founding Skytel LLC with nearly 30 percent ownership stake.TTL, a wireless plan targeting younger users, and nTOP, a cellular internet service were launched in July and October 1999, respectively.In December 1999, SK Telecom surpassed ten million subscriber mark, the following month, it launched the world's first commercial CDMA2000 service. By the end of the year the carrier won a contract for asynchronous IMT-2000 facility.

2001–2007: Cellular internet and market accrual

The new millennium ushered in an era of cross-platform online networks that saw efforts to integrate mobile services, as SK Telecom was exploring new value-creating models such as m-Commerce and satellite DMB Service.

In January 2002, an acquisition of Shinsegi Telecomm Inc. was completed. In the same month also, the company deployed world's first commercial synchronous IMT-2000 facility.In March 2002, the carrier struck international roaming deals between countries using CDMA and GSM networks. An agreement was signed with Israel's Pele-Phone in April to sell proprietary software that will operate on the carrier's existing CDMA network and future 1x-CDMA network. In July, a MoU was signed with China Unicom to establish a joint venture. In November two mobile applications ‘June’ and ‘Moneta’ were launched. In July 2003, S-Fone, a commercial CDMA network became operative in Vietnam. In August 2003, June became the world's first 3G service to have one million subscribers.In February 2004, SK won a contract for a joint venture with China Unicom, called UNISK.In March 2004, Hanbyul, the world's first DMB satellite, was launched.MelOn, an online music store was launched in November 2004. ‘1mm’ and ‘Loview,’ a digital photo frame service were launched in April and November 2005, respectively. By December, MelOn had four million subscribers.SK Telecom started 2006 with record revenues of ?10 trillion . In May the world's first commercial HSDPA handset was released. May also saw the carrier's entry into the U.S. wireless communication market with Helio. In June, SK Telecom signed a strategic partnership with China Unicom to purchase CB worth $1 billion in its subsidiary, China Unicom Hong Kong. In the same month SK deployed its WiBro internet network. In April 2007, a project to create TD-SCDMA, China's 3G wireless broadband equivalent was signed with the Chinese government. Around that time, S-Fone had two million subscribers in Vietnam.

2008–present: Landline and new technologies

In November 2008, SK signed an agreement to buy a controlling stake of fixed-line phone company Hanaro Telecom for ?1.09 trillion from a consortium led by AIG and Newbridge Capital. The new entity will be the second-largest telecom firm in terms of total assets and revenues next to KT Corp.In 2013 SK Telecom was the world's first operator to offer a commercial LTE-Advanced network under the brand name bandLTE. This coincided with the release of the Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE-A model, which offered a step-up CPU and also LTE-Advanced capabilities. SK Telecom supported this handset at launch.On July 6, 2013, it was reported that Apple was in talks with SK Telecom to release the iPhone 5s model on SK's LTE Advanced network.On December 17, 2018 SK Telecom introduced the 'baro' roaming plan which offers unlimited use of international roaming voice calls. As of June 2019, 'baro' has drawn 2.2 million customers and 38 million total calls . It also won the 'Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough in Asia' award at the 2019 Asia Mobile Awards carried as section of MWC19 Shanghai.In June 2019, SK Telecom announced the launching of the world's first 5G roaming service partnering with Swisscom.In October 2020, SK Telecom formed a partnership with Uber Technologies, with a plan to break off mobility operation into a subsidiary called T Map Mobility.In November 2021, SK Telecom spun off of a new company focusing on investments, semiconductors and ICT, SK Square.

Mission
The ultimate goal of SK is to create happiness for all who are involved with it, such as customers, members of SK, and SK stock holders.
Vision
SK Telecom's vision is to become a leader in the global marketplace through the use of innovative technology and services.
Key Team

Yong Joo Park (Head of ESG)

Seong Ho Ha (Head of Corp. Relations)

Mr. Jong Ryeol Kang (Head of ICT Infrastructure, CSPO & Exec. Director)

Hyun A Lee (Head of AI&CO)

Myung-Jin Han (Head of Corp. Strategy)

Bong Ho Lim (Head of Mobile CO)

Dong Hwan Cho (Head of Cloud Technology)

Recognition and Awards
SK Telecom has won the Excellence Award from the International Telecommunication Union in 2017, the GSMA Global Mobile Mobile Award in 2018, and the Future Network Award from the Korea Communications Commission in 2019. It was also named as one of the World's Most Innovative Companies by Forbes in 2017 and 2018.
References
SK Telecom
Leadership team

Mr. Young Sang Ryu (CEO, Pres & Exec. Director)

Jinwon Kim (CFO & Head of Corp. Planning Group)

Mr. Heesup Kim (Head of Communications)

Products/ Services
Telecommunications
Number of Employees
1,000 - 20,000
Headquarters
Seoul, Seoul-t'ukpyolsi, South Korea
Established
1984
Company Registration
SEC CIK number: 0001015650
Net Income
500M - 1B
Revenue
Above - 1B
Traded as
SKM
Social Media