Media Bills Generate Controversy in National Assembly

The Joongang Daily today carried an article with the headline "Controversial Media Bills Advance" and a sub-head indicating that the T.V. unions were planning a general strike over the measures to ease rules on ownership.  The controversy erupted again when the chairman of the National Assembly's Culture and Broadcasting Committee introduced the media bills at a committee session yesterday despite pleas from the opposition not to do so.  The action takes the disputed bill one step closer to a final vote at the Assembly's main session.  The media bills were sent to the committee almost six months ago.  To protest the committee chairman's action the National Union of Media Workers said it would start a general strike at 6:00 A.M. today.

Fair Trade Commission Approves KT Merger with Freetel

There is an important bit of news today in the telecoms press.   The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has approved KT's proposed merger with its mobile subsidiary, Freetel.  The antitrust regulator said in a statement that it doesn't expect the merged entity to create a monopoly.  However, it warned that KT would face tougher regulation if it finds that the company is abusing its market dominance.  The deal still needs the approval of the Korea Communications Commission, a government agency that oversees telecommunications and broadcasting regulation, as well as shareholder's approval.  The merger of KT, which holds 90 percent of the country's fixed-line market, with Freetel which has 32 percent of the wireless market, behind SK Telecom with 51 percent, would create the country's largest telecommunications company.  SK Telecom objects to the merger and anticipates that it will lead to unfair competition.

Sweeping Reduction in Cell Phone Costs for Low Income Koreans

A short but very interesting article in the Digital Chosun Ilbo  today.  It announced that low income earners will no longer have to go through complicated procedures to receive a reduction in their cell-phone rates.  During its operational report to the National Assembly, the Korea Communications Commission announced that a "sweeping reduction" would be implemented.
Would you read anything like this in the US Press these days?

Search, Blogs and Social Networking in Korean Cyberspace

A headline in today's Korea Times declares that "Daum Challenges Naver, Cyworld in Blog Battle."   The basic premise of the article is that web portals are increasingly relying upon user-created content to attract traffic.  Since acquiring Tistory blog services from Tatter & Company (TNC) in 2007, Daum's blog services have increased in popularity and are gaining ground on Naver, the market leader in blogging services.
It turns out that the web traffic reports that measure the popularity of blogs, also show that Cyworld, South Korea's leading social networking site attracts a lot of web traffic.  Daum and Naver both offer search services, whereas Cyworld is not a major competitor in this area.
It seems to me that in search, blogs and social networking you have three very different kinds of web services.  Although the Korea Times article compares the "blogging services" of each, Naver is basically a search engine, Daum is a web portal with search and other capabilities, and Cyworld is a social networking site, a la "Second Life." Search is a basic function that helps people locate the information they seek in the flood of information produced on the internet.  A blog is a way of publishing one's own information on the internet and networking with others interested in those topics.  Social networking has less to do with publishing anything and much more to do with simply socializing in a 21st century manner.
Because of their different origins and emphases it is extremely difficult to compare web traffic to the three sites compared in this article.  By their very nature, they are inherently aiming at different market segments to generate their traffic.

Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) in South Korea

An interesting article in The Korea Times  describes how rivals, especially SK Telecom are not happy about KT's proposed merger with KTF, the country's number two mobile operator.   KTF has a 32 percent market share in mobile and rivals claim that consolidation with its fixed-line parent would threaten the health of competition in the wireless market.  KT, suffering from declining voice business in recent years, counters that absorbing KTF is the only way it can stay competitive, now that its public-switched telephone network (PSTN) services have been exposed as a decaying business model.
Both the Korea Communications Commission, the country's broadcasting and telecommunications regulator and the Korea Fair Trade Commission, are reported to be leaning toward approval of the KT-KTF merger.  KT has the largest network infrastructure in the country, but it points out that its network is already open through local loop unbundling (LLU).  LLU is the regulatory process of allowing multiple telecommunications operators to use connections from the telephone exchange's central office to the customers premises.  The physical wire connection between customer and company is known as the "local loop."
Reportedly, rival companies have requested access to KT's phone lines in only 145 cases over the past eight years, as they also have the option of borrowing facilities from the Korea Electric Power Corporation and cable system operators.  According to Lee Hyung-hee, director of SK Telecoms CR strategy division, "KT rejected about 86 percent of the requests by SK Broadband to use its network, so it is hard to say that the LLU is working."