KT Corp.: the broadband king

Chief Executive, The, March, 2005

The world's eighth largest telecommunications service provider is no old-line telco. KT Corp., formerly Korea Telecom, is now one of the world's biggest broadband companies with more than 3.3 million ultrahigh-speed Internet subscribers. Just as Korea has emerged as the broadband capital of the world, KT has become the engine that drives Korea's Internet leaps. The company's revenues from Internet access alone were $2.8 billion last year and are likely to exceed $3.2 billion this year, or over 27 percent of total sales this year, says Chang Sungmin, an analyst with Samsung Securities in Seoul.

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KT CEO Lee Yong Kyung is determined to put the company on the map as a global player. The once incumbent national telephone company has pushed ahead with direct investments in the Asia-Pacific region and pursued strategic alliances with the world's most advanced telecommunications and tech companies, including HP, Microsoft and others.

KT's growth drivers for the next five years will be home networks and WiBro, as well as next-generation mobile communications services, mobile multimedia broadcasting and digital content. In 2005, KT expects to invest $2.3 billion in WiBro alone, and KT and its affiliates are committed to spending a total of $3 billion on new investments to remain on the cutting edge of technology every year until 2010.

With over $11.5 billion in annual revenues, KT made $1.3 billion in net profits last year. It expects to increase total sales to $27.5 billion by 2010. "KT Corp. will no longer remain a train chugging down a fixed rail along a single path, but choose to be a car speeding along a highway leading, or even a jet aircraft free to fly anywhere imagination takes us," CEO Lee said recently.