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Press Release
HELIO LLC, a joint venture company established by SK Telecom and EarthLink, launched its nationwide mobile communications service in the United States on May 2nd, 2006. In January 2005, SK Telecom and EarthLink announced to establish Joint Venture (JV) company, ’SK-EarthLink’, to enter the U.S. mobile communications market, and the two companies decided to invest $220 million, respectively. In October 2005, the JV company changed its brand and company name to HELIO LLC and officially started its cellular voice and data services throughout the U.S. on May, 2006. (SK Telecom has invested $160 million out of the total committed amount $220 million as of March 31, 2006.)
HELIO’s main strategy is to provide its subscribers with a unique mobile experience by offering multimedia wireless Internet and mobile blog services, similar to the ones that developed and commercialized in Korea, one of the most advanced mobile communication service market in the world. The company hopes to differentiate itself from other MVNO providers with such kind of specialized services. For example, the state of the art wireless Internet services include MySpace on Helio, the country’s first wireless community portal service.
MySpace currently has over 68 million subscribers. Through the service, users will be able to upload photos directly to their Myspace homepage via their Helio devices, also read and write on their MySpace mail, bulletins, and photo category. Other notable features are ’HELIO on Top’ (H.O.T.), which allows real time update of various content on the device’s idle screen. Mobile Yahoo! Search will enable users to experience mobile e-mail and messaging as well as receive news and sports updates and Multimedia Messaging service, which supports the sharing of large sized video, picture and text messages. With these various services, HELIO hopes to bring new trends to the U.S. mobile communications market.
HELIO also provides a specialized wireless Internet service not only in English but also in Korean. Through the service, subscribers can access Korean mobile games, ring tones, screen savers, Korean karaoke, Korean music, Koreatown Information, Korean news and entertainment. HELIO is expected to acquire 3.3 million subscribers and achieve $2.4 billion in sales revenue by 2009.
HELIO’s main strategy is to provide its subscribers with a unique mobile experience by offering multimedia wireless Internet and mobile blog services, similar to the ones that developed and commercialized in Korea, one of the most advanced mobile communication service market in the world. The company hopes to differentiate itself from other MVNO providers with such kind of specialized services. For example, the state of the art wireless Internet services include MySpace on Helio, the country’s first wireless community portal service.
MySpace currently has over 68 million subscribers. Through the service, users will be able to upload photos directly to their Myspace homepage via their Helio devices, also read and write on their MySpace mail, bulletins, and photo category. Other notable features are ’HELIO on Top’ (H.O.T.), which allows real time update of various content on the device’s idle screen. Mobile Yahoo! Search will enable users to experience mobile e-mail and messaging as well as receive news and sports updates and Multimedia Messaging service, which supports the sharing of large sized video, picture and text messages. With these various services, HELIO hopes to bring new trends to the U.S. mobile communications market.
HELIO also provides a specialized wireless Internet service not only in English but also in Korean. Through the service, subscribers can access Korean mobile games, ring tones, screen savers, Korean karaoke, Korean music, Koreatown Information, Korean news and entertainment. HELIO is expected to acquire 3.3 million subscribers and achieve $2.4 billion in sales revenue by 2009.