Korean Wireless Data Communication Markets and Consumer Technology

At the end of the 20th century the focus of communication service markets shifted from voice to data. Simultaneously, wireless communication became mobile, spreading globally, and produced an immense economic impact, with external effects impacting on related industry. However, voice service provider revenues declined due to a slowdown in subscription growth and falls in calling charges. Service providers have offered data services based on the mobile communication networks as an alternative (mobile Internet). However, the traditional economic framework is not applicable to this mobile Internet environment since both the volume of data traffic and revenues are slight, as is the rate of increase. Moreover, new wireless technology such as wireless LAN and Bluetooth are developed to further threaten incumbents. Accordingly, uncertainty about the returns to enormous investments in the communications facilities has increased. Further, within the mobile communications industry, the relative importance of data communication as opposed to voice is growing.