Wholly owned by KT Corporation, the largest telecommunications and media service provider in South Korea, satellite service provider KT Sat currently operates five satellites spanning Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. With two new satellites set to be launched in the next 12 months, Jun Kim, VP Global Sales and Marketing, KT Sat, shares with APB some insights on how the company intends to serve its customers in South Korea, and beyond.
• KT Sat has been perceived as a relatively new player in the satellite industry. Can you tell us more about KT Sat, and briefly explain the company’s business plans?
Jun Kim: KT Sat, a subsidiary company of Korea Telecom Group (KT Corporation), was spun off in December 2012. For more than 45 years, KT Sat, as a satellite communications provider, has continued to grow by providing broadcasting, government, military and maritime services, as well as solutions designed specifically for our customers.
By Q4 this year and beyond, KT Sat will grow our capacity to provide high- quality broadcast and communications services for rapidly growing nations in Asia-Pacific through Ku-band and Ka-band transponders on the KOREASAT-5A at 113˚E and KOREASAT-7 at 116˚E. These satellites will be launched in Q4 2016 and Q1 2017 respectively.
Besides our main office in Seoul, KT Sat has offices located in Jakarta and Dubai, as part of our efforts to accelerate regional sales and growth.
Moving forward, KT Sat plans to establish new offices in emerging markets and to recruit sales personnel, in order to closely address our customers’ needs and provide services specifically designed for each customer.
• Faced with price competition and the increasing number of service providers within the satellite industry, what would be KT Sat’s strategy in ensuring continued growth? What is KT Sat’s unique offering to its customers?
Kim: With 130 years of experience, Korean Telecom is South Korea’s leading telecommunications service provider, and is providing services to 17 million mobile, six million broadband and eight million pay-TV subscribers via telecommunications infrastructure provided by more than 50 subsidiaries of KT Corporation. All subsidiaries of KT are working together on the basis of the KT slogan, ‘Single KT’, and KT is also a leading provider of 5G networks.
KT Sat continues to work closely with consultants of the KT Group in an effort to understand customers’ needs more precisely; to provide customers with packaged solutions rather than just satellite capacity; to promote continuous growth of end-customers with customer-specific solutions; and to satisfy the demanding needs of media and telecommunication companies.
For example, KT Skylife, a KT Corporation subsidiary, is the only direct-to-home (DTH) operator in South Korea, and it has developed successful business strategies with, and for, CATV, IPTV and over-the-top (OTT) operators. KT Skylife has provided solutions, and created unprecedented and profit-lasting models for its customers.
• South Korea is one of the leading 4K/Ultra HD markets in Asia. How is KT Sat helping broadcasters in the country prepare for the launch of 4K/Ultra HD services?
Kim: KT Sat has been providing transponders and technical support for KT Skylife’s 4K/Ultra HD (UHD) launches and technology tests since 2014. KT Sat is currently providing managed uplink services for KT Skylife at the Kumsan and Yongin teleports. This year, KT Skylife plans to launch three additional 4K/UHD channels, bringing the total number of channels to six, of which five are already in operation. KT Skylife first introduced 4K/UHD broadcast services in June last year and has registered a net addition of 15,000 new subscribers every month. With 160,000 current 4K/UHD subscribers, KT Skylife aims to achieve the 400,000 subscriber mark by the end of this year, through the promotion of the Olympic Games in Brazil.
In order to response to the increasing demand for 4K/UHD channels, KT Sat is also launching KOREASAT-5 and KOREASAT-7, the two new satellites mentioned earlier, with dedicated transponders for broadcast purposes.
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