Earthlink and the Korean giant SK Telecom are teaming up to bring advanced cellular services to the U.S. market.
Think of SK-EarthLink as the wireless carrier for the geek squad. When it launches later this year, it will target what [Earthlink founder Sky] Dayton calls "Internet-savvy early adopters" -- those consumers who will be the first to buy the latest 3G (third-generation) cell phones and will eagerly use data services via cell or Wi-Fi networks. The joint venture will build on EarthLink's well-deserved reputation as a company willing to try new technologies. It was one of the first ISPs to offer voice-over-Internet-protocol service to its 5.5 million customers and was also an early supporter of broadband. SK Telecom has a similar legacy: With 18 million subscribers, it was the world's first CDMA carrier to launch a 3G network, and it's a pioneer in GPS-based location services, as well as video applications for cell phones....

Here's the cool part, from an investor's point of view: SK-EarthLink will try to reach that goal without spending a dime developing its own infrastructure. Instead, the upstart carrier will rely on Sprint and Verizon Wireless to provide the backbone for its wireless offerings. SK-EarthLink will function as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), essentially renting access to each network. It will pay the carriers a per-minute fee each time one of its customers makes a phone call or streams a video broadcast. SK-EarthLink will also integrate Wi-Fi into its devices, drawing on Dayton's experiences at Boingo Wireless, the nation's largest Wi-Fi hotspot aggregator.
This MVNO thing looks like a ray of hope to me. All the big cellular companies appear to be going the walled garden route with their 3G networks. This is going to create a big opportunity. I think there are a lot of people like me who are willing to pay for fast 3G cellular service. But we want to pay for open access to the internet, not for some specialized content created by the cellular industry! (D'uh!) So charge me by the bit, fine, just let me choose what the bits are going to be from the internet at large.

Maybe SK-EarthLink, or some other MVNO, will give the people what they want. Sky Daton has done some cool stuff before so I am a tiny bit hopeful.
- jim 2-03-2005 5:59 pm




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