SEOUL, South Korea-LG Telecom and Hanaro have ended a dispute to jointly bid on South Korea’s third and final third-generation wireless license based on cdma2000 technology. LG Telecom plans to partner with a foreign company to take more than 50 percent of the consortium.
LG did not name the foreign partner, although Canada’s Telesystem International Wireless has been reported as being in talks with LG regarding the 3G license. The foreign partner would likely hold about 25 percent of the consortium. Hanaro will have a 10-percent stake in the consortium, with other Korean companies holding the remainder.
The Korean government awarded the first two 3G licenses to SK Telecom, the country’s largest mobile provider, and Korean Telecom late last year. The two licenses are based on W-CDMA technology.
The government also had planned to award a cdma2000 license at that time, but rejected separate offers from both LG Telecom and Hanaro for the license. All current Korean carriers operate cdmaOne networks, and the third cdma2000 license was seen as a way to maintain the country’s vested interests in CDMA technology, both by carriers and vendors such as Samsung.
The license fee is set at about $930 million.
Korean’s Ministry of Information and Communication Yang Seung-taik said last month the government would restart the licensing process only when LG Telecom partnered with Hanaro Telecom.
