content area
Press Release
Nationwide service available as of May 2, 2006 in the U.S.
3.3 million subscribers and
2.4 billion in annual sales revenue expected by 2009
Unique mobile experience Through specialized features and handsets
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HELIO, a joint venture company by SK Telecom and EarthLink, begins its nationwide mobile service in the United States as of May 2, 2006. (12:00 a.m. EST, May 2, 2006)
Seoul, KOREA - May 2, 2006 - HELIO (CEO Sky Dayton, www.helio.com) LLC, a joint venture company established by SK Telecom and EarthLink, announced today (12:00 a.m. EST, Tuesday, May 2, 2006) the launching of its nationwide mobile communications service in the United States.
SK Telecom and EarthLink first declared plans to enter the U.S. mobile communications market by establishing the joint venture (JV) company, ’SK-EarthLink’, in January of 2005. Since then the JV company has changed its brand and company name to HELIO LLC (Oct, 2005). Now after six months of preparation, Helio officially begins its cellular voice and data services throughout the U.S.
Helio provides mobile service by renting networks from nationwide network operators such as Sprint and Verizon. This is a so-called partial mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) system. The company aims to target young subscribers by introducing services never before offered in the U.S., such as mobile blogging on MySpace and wireless Internet service offered in Korean.
Through these services, Helio expects to acquire 3.3 million subscribers and achieve $2.4 billion in annual sales revenue in the U.S. mobile communications market by 2009.
Helio’s bilingual launch devices, Hero (Pantech) and Kickflip (VK), are another first in the American market. The two handsets support English and Korean characters and are designed based on popular and up-to-date CDMA phones from Korea. Three additional top-of-the-line cell phones will also be available by the end of this year.
Helio’s main strategy is to provide members with a unique mobile experience by offering multimedia wireless Internet and mobile blog services developed in Korea, one of the most advanced mobile communication markets in the world. The company hopes such specialized services will set them apart from other MVNO providers.
Such services include MySpace on Helio, providing first-ever mobile access to the Internet blog, MySpace, which has over 68 million members. With this service, users will be able to post photos directly from their Helio device to their MySpace page and also read and write MySpace mail, post and reply to bulletins, and read and write blogs.
Helio also provides a specialized wireless Internet service not only in English but also in Korean. Through this service members get access to Korean mobile games, ring tones, screen savers, Korean karaoke, Korean music, Koreatown Information, Korean news and entertainment.
Other notable features are Helio on Top (H.O.T.), that lets users personalize their live content feeds by selecting from various sources for 10 different live ’channels’ that will show on their Helio device idle screen, Mobile Yahoo! Search, which enables users to experience mobile e-mail and messaging as well as receive news and sports updates and Multimedia Messaging, which supports the sharing of large sized video, picture and text messages. With these various services, Helio hopes to bring new trends to the American mobile communications market.
Helio will be available in 1,000 retail locations by the end of May to more than 3,000 nationwide by the end of the year. Customers can also go online at helio.com to get service. The company plans to continually expand online marketing channels through partnerships with Yahoo! and MySpace.
Helio plans to further attract subscribers by catering to the tastes of young and tech savvy users with various marketing methods proved successful in Korea. Such methods include providing subscribers with customer oriented calling plans, implementing advertising strategies that will create a high-end product image and also utilizing Korea’s top-notch subscriber and billing management system.
Currently in the U.S., companies such as Virgin Mobile and Quest offer mobile service using the MVNO system. As of Dec 2005, only 72 percent of Americans, in other words slightly over 200 million users, have gone wireless, a relatively low percentage compared to other developed countries. This implies the large growth potential of the U.S. mobile communications market. (In comparison, 79.7 percent of Koreans own a cell phone as of March 2006.)
In addition, the U.S. market is huge with its population of 290 million people and is widely expected to continue its economic growth. Experts anticipate around 25 million additional users to join a mobile communications service by the year 2009, increasing the nation’s cell phone penetration rate to 77 percent. This creates an extremely attractive market for MVNO operators that can provide unique mobile communications services with various specialized features and multimedia contents.
SK Telecom plans to increase Helio’s competitiveness in the American market by implementing previously successful business models and contents. The company’s business launch will also imply a significant step towards creating a grander portfolio of SK Telecom’s global ventures ranging from Vietnam and China to now including the United States.
With Helio, SK Telecom will be able to introduce Korea’s advanced wireless Internet platform WIPI and ’Killer’ wireless Internet content. Furthermore, domestic content providers, terminal manufacturers, and IT venture companies that have special know-how on wireless Internet servers and terminal solutions, will also have an opportunity to make an entry into the U.S. marketplace.
SK Telecom has high hopes for Helio, as the company forecasts its business launch in the U.S. to bring $1 billion in exports to handset manufacturers of the Korean IT industry by 2008.
SK Telecom expects to succeed in securing a new foreign market and lucrative profit source as it pushes into the U.S. mobile communications market. Helio will also grant the company with the opportunity to break free from the saturated and over competitive Korean domestic mobile market and create a positive business circle by securing new and long-term earnings abroad.
Helio, a JV company by SK Telecom and EarthLink, was first established in Jan 2005 with an investment total of $440 million. Helio is managed by a board or directors with an equal decision-making structure equally shared by the two companies.
SK Telecom, known for successfully launching the world’s first commercial CDMA cellular service, is currently the number one leading mobile service provider in Korea. EarthLink, with its 5.3 million Internet service subscribers, operates large-scale distribution channels and over 18 thousand dealer shops across the U.S. Therefore Helio is expected to generate the utmost synergy with the combination of the Korean company’s technologies and ’Killer’ content and the U.S. company’s marketing skills.
"This is a great opportunity us to demonstrate our advanced wireless Internet technology and contents, which is not only number one in Korea but in the world", Shin Bae Kim, CEO of SK Telecom, said. "Helio’s launch will provide great momentum in Korea’s active search of new growth engines, and SK Telecom will continue to implement overseas business operations in those global markets in which our business partners, and Korean IT entities, can win together".
"Helio is about more than just communication; it’s custom-built to reflect the lifestyle of young consumers that see their mobile device as the center of their universe", said Sky Dayton, CEO HELIO LLC. "Mobile devices shouldn’t be limited to making calls, sending text messages and downloading content. With Helio, mobile is about staying connected in innovative ways where sharing your world includes content like videos and games, or unique personalization that you know your friends will love. These are things that have been happening online for years, but haven’t been enabled in a mobile environment - until now".
Helio’s official launching ceremony will be held May 19, 2006 at Helio’s main headquarters in Los Angeles, CA. SK Telecom CEO Sin Bae Kim, Helio CEO Sky Dayton and representatives from Korean solution providers are scheduled to attend.
SK Telecom and EarthLink first declared plans to enter the U.S. mobile communications market by establishing the joint venture (JV) company, ’SK-EarthLink’, in January of 2005. Since then the JV company has changed its brand and company name to HELIO LLC (Oct, 2005). Now after six months of preparation, Helio officially begins its cellular voice and data services throughout the U.S.
Helio provides mobile service by renting networks from nationwide network operators such as Sprint and Verizon. This is a so-called partial mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) system. The company aims to target young subscribers by introducing services never before offered in the U.S., such as mobile blogging on MySpace and wireless Internet service offered in Korean.
Through these services, Helio expects to acquire 3.3 million subscribers and achieve $2.4 billion in annual sales revenue in the U.S. mobile communications market by 2009.
Helio’s bilingual launch devices, Hero (Pantech) and Kickflip (VK), are another first in the American market. The two handsets support English and Korean characters and are designed based on popular and up-to-date CDMA phones from Korea. Three additional top-of-the-line cell phones will also be available by the end of this year.
Helio’s main strategy is to provide members with a unique mobile experience by offering multimedia wireless Internet and mobile blog services developed in Korea, one of the most advanced mobile communication markets in the world. The company hopes such specialized services will set them apart from other MVNO providers.
Such services include MySpace on Helio, providing first-ever mobile access to the Internet blog, MySpace, which has over 68 million members. With this service, users will be able to post photos directly from their Helio device to their MySpace page and also read and write MySpace mail, post and reply to bulletins, and read and write blogs.
Helio also provides a specialized wireless Internet service not only in English but also in Korean. Through this service members get access to Korean mobile games, ring tones, screen savers, Korean karaoke, Korean music, Koreatown Information, Korean news and entertainment.
Other notable features are Helio on Top (H.O.T.), that lets users personalize their live content feeds by selecting from various sources for 10 different live ’channels’ that will show on their Helio device idle screen, Mobile Yahoo! Search, which enables users to experience mobile e-mail and messaging as well as receive news and sports updates and Multimedia Messaging, which supports the sharing of large sized video, picture and text messages. With these various services, Helio hopes to bring new trends to the American mobile communications market.
Helio will be available in 1,000 retail locations by the end of May to more than 3,000 nationwide by the end of the year. Customers can also go online at helio.com to get service. The company plans to continually expand online marketing channels through partnerships with Yahoo! and MySpace.
Helio plans to further attract subscribers by catering to the tastes of young and tech savvy users with various marketing methods proved successful in Korea. Such methods include providing subscribers with customer oriented calling plans, implementing advertising strategies that will create a high-end product image and also utilizing Korea’s top-notch subscriber and billing management system.
Currently in the U.S., companies such as Virgin Mobile and Quest offer mobile service using the MVNO system. As of Dec 2005, only 72 percent of Americans, in other words slightly over 200 million users, have gone wireless, a relatively low percentage compared to other developed countries. This implies the large growth potential of the U.S. mobile communications market. (In comparison, 79.7 percent of Koreans own a cell phone as of March 2006.)
In addition, the U.S. market is huge with its population of 290 million people and is widely expected to continue its economic growth. Experts anticipate around 25 million additional users to join a mobile communications service by the year 2009, increasing the nation’s cell phone penetration rate to 77 percent. This creates an extremely attractive market for MVNO operators that can provide unique mobile communications services with various specialized features and multimedia contents.
SK Telecom plans to increase Helio’s competitiveness in the American market by implementing previously successful business models and contents. The company’s business launch will also imply a significant step towards creating a grander portfolio of SK Telecom’s global ventures ranging from Vietnam and China to now including the United States.
With Helio, SK Telecom will be able to introduce Korea’s advanced wireless Internet platform WIPI and ’Killer’ wireless Internet content. Furthermore, domestic content providers, terminal manufacturers, and IT venture companies that have special know-how on wireless Internet servers and terminal solutions, will also have an opportunity to make an entry into the U.S. marketplace.
SK Telecom has high hopes for Helio, as the company forecasts its business launch in the U.S. to bring $1 billion in exports to handset manufacturers of the Korean IT industry by 2008.
SK Telecom expects to succeed in securing a new foreign market and lucrative profit source as it pushes into the U.S. mobile communications market. Helio will also grant the company with the opportunity to break free from the saturated and over competitive Korean domestic mobile market and create a positive business circle by securing new and long-term earnings abroad.
Helio, a JV company by SK Telecom and EarthLink, was first established in Jan 2005 with an investment total of $440 million. Helio is managed by a board or directors with an equal decision-making structure equally shared by the two companies.
SK Telecom, known for successfully launching the world’s first commercial CDMA cellular service, is currently the number one leading mobile service provider in Korea. EarthLink, with its 5.3 million Internet service subscribers, operates large-scale distribution channels and over 18 thousand dealer shops across the U.S. Therefore Helio is expected to generate the utmost synergy with the combination of the Korean company’s technologies and ’Killer’ content and the U.S. company’s marketing skills.
"This is a great opportunity us to demonstrate our advanced wireless Internet technology and contents, which is not only number one in Korea but in the world", Shin Bae Kim, CEO of SK Telecom, said. "Helio’s launch will provide great momentum in Korea’s active search of new growth engines, and SK Telecom will continue to implement overseas business operations in those global markets in which our business partners, and Korean IT entities, can win together".
"Helio is about more than just communication; it’s custom-built to reflect the lifestyle of young consumers that see their mobile device as the center of their universe", said Sky Dayton, CEO HELIO LLC. "Mobile devices shouldn’t be limited to making calls, sending text messages and downloading content. With Helio, mobile is about staying connected in innovative ways where sharing your world includes content like videos and games, or unique personalization that you know your friends will love. These are things that have been happening online for years, but haven’t been enabled in a mobile environment - until now".
Helio’s official launching ceremony will be held May 19, 2006 at Helio’s main headquarters in Los Angeles, CA. SK Telecom CEO Sin Bae Kim, Helio CEO Sky Dayton and representatives from Korean solution providers are scheduled to attend.