Helio, a joint venture company established by SK Telecom and EarthLink, an ISP in the US, is in a full fledged marketing effort for its service and brand in the US.

Since its service inception on May 2nd, the company has been holding demonstrations of its product to the public in such cities as LA, New York, San Francisco Chicago, Seattle and Washington DC. ‘Helio’ will continue these events until June, focusing on major cities in which Korean community activities are moving briskly.

Through these events, the company demonstrates how to send and receive text messages to/from Korea, how to make international calls to Korea via mobile phone, and how to download Korean music videos. Notably, the Helio brand and products were introduced in a ‘Hollywood Bowl Korean Music Festival’ which took place in LA on May 20, 2006.

Until June 30th, Helio plans to carry out varied promotion events for those who subscribe to the Helio service. These include free download services of two mobile games, two ‘Live Bell’ music choices and 100 minutes of free international calling to Korea.

As part of its marketing strategies, the company has offered free Helio handsets to celebrities including Steven Spielberg, Tom Cruise and professional female Korean golfers, such as Pearl Shin, who participates in the LPGA Tour in the US. Most notably, Tom Cruise was shown using Helio’s bilingual jet-black handset “Hero” in the US, as well as throughout the world, the Helio brand started drawing keen attention from the market.

By focusing on securing Korean American subscribers, Helio will release a ‘Korean Short Messaging Service’ (SMS) in the US on June 10th. This service lets subscribers send and receive Korean text messages in the US, as well as to/from Korea.

Through the Korean SMS, subscribers can send and receive Korean or English short messages in the US, or between the US and Korea through handsets that support both the Korean and English languages. The subscribers to ‘All-In Membership Rate Plan’ (Type III) are allowed to use the SMS without limits, and the subscribers to ‘Selective Rate Plan”(Type I) pay ten cents for each sending or receiving of a short text message. This service is expected to quickly attain great popularity among the two million Korean Americans in the US.

Helio is extending its sales network, focusing on such electronic stores as Fry’s Electronics, Goody and Suncoast. In particular, the company plans to concentrate on key sales channels in Korea- towns in the US. Helio will be available in 3,000 retail locations nationwide, by the end of this year.

Helio plans to further attract subscribers by catering to the tastes of young and tech savvy users with the various marketing methods that proved successful in Korea. Such methods include providing subscribers with online marketing channels through a partnership with MySpace. Helio expects to acquire 3.3 million subscribers by 2009 through actively carrying out marketing activities that cater to the US telecom market environment and cultural characteristics.

‘By applying the SK Telecom marketing strategies that gained great success in Korea’s telecom market, we will break into the US mobile communications market early on’ said Won Hee Sul, president of Helio.

Helio’s official launching ceremony took place on May 19, 2006 at the Park Hyatt Hotel in LA. About 200 guests participated in the ceremony. These included: Shin Bae Kim, president of SK Telecom, Sky Dayton, CEO of Helio, Sun Hong Choi, president of Feelingk, Jae Hee Shim, president of Ntels, Tom Cruise and his wife Katie Holmes, and Chris Nam, chairman of the Korean Society of LA.

‘This is a great opportunity for us to demonstrate our advanced CDMA technology-based wireless Internet service in the US. We hope to gain great success in this market of great potential’ said Shin Bae Kim, CEO of SK Telecom, during his congratulatory speech at the ceremony.

In addition, Sun Hong Choi, president of Feelingk, who received a plaque of thanks for representing SK Telecom’s business partners, commented ‘I hope that Helio’s launch will provide great momentum in Korea’s active search for new growth engines. Through this service operation, the cooperative ties between small-, medium- and large-sized companies will be further strengthened so we can all win together’.

SK Telecom and domestic small and medium-sized business partners are making greater inroads into the US market.

SK Telecom is devising a plan to break into the US wireless Internet market early on, together with domestic wireless content providers (CPs) who are aided by the top-notch wireless Internet technologies and services. Currently they are supplying a variety of wireless Internet content and solutions to Helio (www.helio.com), a joint venture company established by SK Telecom and EarthLink in the US.

To this end, SK Telecom will continue to extend the number of CPs and wireless Internet platform and download server solution developers who are providing their services to Helio. Helio’s main strategy is to provide subscribers with a unique mobile experience by offering multimedia wireless Internet and mobile blog services developed in Korea, which boasts 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.

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 US marketplace.

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 give the company an 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.

From 2003 to 2005, a total of 55 small- and medium-sized companies exported wireless Internet platforms and solutions worth about US$88 million to ten countries (including China, the US, Netherlands and Israel), in a joint effort with SK Telecom. SK Telecom estimates that the export volume of wireless Internet solution to the US market will reach approximately US$100 million in 2006. Therefore, the accumulated export volume of wireless Internet products will exceed US$100 million by the end of this year.

SK Telecom’s business partners who are offering wireless Internet solutions to Helio are as follows: eight wireless Internet server solution providers (Feelingk, BTB Solutions, INTICUBE, Varo Vision, Hewlett-Packard Korea, Solvix Technology, McubeWorks and nTels), five terminal solution providers (DigiCAPS, XCE, Infraware, MediaChorus and Altzen), ten marketing infrastructure and system operation supporters (including SK C&C, U-Angel and Wide net) and two content providers such as MySpace and Yahoo.

Helio 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, and 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 from 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 into the American mobile communications market.

“The global wireless Internet solution market has a relatively high access barrier due to the cutthroat competition and limited demand. However, domestic IT venture companies will have good opportunities if they advance into the global market in a joint effort with a larger telecom service provider” said Sun Hong Choi, president of Feelingk that is offering Helio wireless Internet download servers.

SK Telecom has made strong efforts to support small- and medium-sized companies’ R&D infrastructure in order to aid in their advancement into the global market. To accomplish these ends the company is operating a ‘Mobile Test Lab’ that offers an actual mobile communication network environment. There is also a ’3G Reality Center’ that is equipped with a test-bed GSM network environment. These facilities help the company’s partners test their technologies and solutions, as well as verify business feasibilities in the global market.

UK mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Virgin Mobile today announced that a number of its top brass, including founder and chief Tom Alexander, will stand down following the completion of the company’s acquisition by NTL in July.

Alexander, who has been at the helm of Virgin Mobile since its launch in 1999, has decided to leave the company of his own accord on July 4. He will be retained in an advisory role as a consultant to Virgin Mobile for the rest of 2006.

Charles Gurassa, non-executive chairman of Virgin Mobile, and the board’s other non-executive directors Gordon McCallum, Caroline Marland, Rupert Gavin, David Maloney and Richard Huntingford will also stand down on the successful completion of the merger.

Alan Gow, currently chief financial officer, will become managing director of Virgin Mobile and fellow executive director and co-founder Joe Steel, the company’s commercial director, will also continue with his position and deputy managing director.

NTL agreed to buy Virgin Mobile in April in a deal worth up to ВЈ985m. The merger will create the UK’s first quadruple play operator, delivering mobile, fixed line, broadband and TV services under the Virgin brand.