SK Telecom's Discounts on Data Roaming in Asia

          In an effort to increase data usage in overseas, the largest wireless company in Korea, SK Telecom, is giving a major discount on data roaming service in eight Asian countries. The discount would be applied through a flat-rate data plan beginning on April 14, and it would allow internet users in countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia and Taiwan, to have an access to internet 85 percent cheaper than the normal rate. However, the discount would not be applied to the voice calls.
          This new business strategy was possible because SK Telecom and other 11 large wireless operators in Asia, SingTel of Singapore, Maxis of Malaysia, Bharti Airtel of India and Telkomsel of Indonesia, had agreed on joining the "Bride Alliance." According to the article, "the Bridge Alliance has about 200 million subscribers in 11 nations. SK Telecom joined them last year as its 10th member." (BussinessWeek)
          Although the current data usage in other countries is not that big, SKT is expecting it would fit the increasing demand of international data service. The promoting data service would be available only for SKT's WCDMA services. SK Telecom's goal is to "...encourage the use of automatic roaming of WCDMA phones and make SKT's roaming leadership concrete via partnership with global players." (BusinessWeek)
          I'm not a passionate data user since the rate is relatively very expensive and there are not that many components that I need from mobile internet service. However, I heard that many industries are now using such technology to connect employees in overseas together and communicate through mobile internet or e-mail services. I think it would be very pleasant news for many businessmen since they could save a lot of money when they use data service in some of the countries in Asia. It's yet only for SK Telecom users; however, both KTF and LG Telecom are now competing aggressively over reducing rates of both voice and data service, I think it's a matter of time that the other two would follow the steps that SK Telecom is doing now.

Reference;
http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2008/03/123_21508.html

20601008 - 3rd Entry