traded as krx 017670 nyse skm industry telecommunications founded april 20 1984 ; 32 years ago april 20 1984 as korea mobile telecommunications 1997 as sk telecom headquarters jung district seoul south korea key people dong hyun jang ceo products wireless telecom . cellular internet internet mobile platform internet of things revenue 13.601 billion 2010 1 number of employees 20 955 parent korea telecom 1984 1994 sk group since 1994 subsidiaries see this list website www.sktelecom.com sk telecom co. ltd. hangul sk or full name sunkyoung telecom is a south korean wireless telecommunications operator it is part of the sk group one of the country s largest chaebols . sk telecom is south korea s largest wireless carrier it leads the local market with 50.5 percent share as of 2008 . 2 since its creation in 1984 the company has evolved from a first generation analog cellular system to second generation cdma then to the world s first third generation synchronized imt 2000 cellular system . sk telecom also became the world s first carrier to commercialize hsdpa in may 2006 . sk expanded into the landline market by acquiring second rated fixed line operator hanaro telecom in february 2008 . the company s online brands include nate a web portal ; june a mobile multimedia service ; moneta an e banking mobile app ; nate drive a telematics service and digital home an online interface to remote control household appliances . 3 online services are offered through tech subsidiary sk communications which also dominates the social networks market in south korea . cyworld is the largest social media site by membership and nateon is the number one instant messaging client . 4 in 2004 sk telecom launched hanbyul the world s first dmb satellite . tu media sk telecom s digital media arm handles dmb tv broadcasts . in november 2015 sk telecom announced signing a deal to acquire cj hellovision the country s largest cable and internet operator with the view to merge it with its own cable unit sk broadband . 5 the acquisition which will make sk broadband the no. 2 paid cable broadcaster following kt 6 is being opposed by competitors who charge that the merger will help sk unfairly dominate the market . 7 8 contents 1 history 1.1 1984 1993 early years 1.2 1994 1996 privatization and the cdma standard 1.3 1997 2000 international expansion 1.4 2001 2007 cellular internet and market accrual 1.5 2008 present landline and new technologies 2 services 3 international markets 3.1 china 3.2 united states 3.2.1 helio 3.2.2 mobile money ventures 3.2.3 sk telecom americas innopartners 3.3 vietnam 4 subsidiaries 4.1 netsgo 4.2 sk broadband 4.3 sk communications 4.4 sk planet 4.5 sk telink 4.6 tu media 4.7 iriver 5 employee conditions 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit sk telecom was established in march 1984 under the name korea mobile telecommunications services corp. kmtsc ; hangul but was renamed korea mobile telecommunications corp. kmtc ; hangul in may 1988 . it was a subsidiary of the state monopoly phone company korea telecom now known as kt corp. until kt sold it off in 1993 . 9 in june 1994 sk group formerly sunkyong group became korea mobile telecommunications corporation s largest shareholder . kmtc officially joined the sk group in january 1997 and changed its name to sk telecom in march of that year . in october 2000 sk telecom became the second operator in the world after ntt docomo to launch a commercial 3g service using w cdma technology . in january 2002 this was followed up by launching the world s first cdma2000 1xev do network offering greatly increased data transmission speeds to preexisting 2g networks . in may 2005 sk telecom divested 60 percent of sk teletech stock to cellphone maker pantech . 10 sk remains the second largest shareholder by holding on to the rest of teletech s stock . in 2006 the well known sky brand of mobile devices became fully owned by pantech as it finalized its takeover of sk teletech . 1984 1993 early years edit founded on march 29 1984 as korea mobile telecommunications services corp. the state owned carrier introduced pagers and car phones to the korean market . may 1984 saw the launch of the car phone service . korea mobile changed its name to korea mobile telecommunications corp. kmtc in may 1988 . in july amps cellular network was initially launched in seoul metropolitan area . by 1991 nationwide coverage was complete . in april 1993 the south korean government through kmtc adopted cdma as the national cellular telephone system . 11 1994 1996 privatization and the cdma standard edit through privatization sk group became korea mobile telecommunications corp. s largest shareholder in june 1994 . in october 1994 korea s first cdma system was introduced to the public for the first time . in january 1995 kmtc reached the one million subscriber mark . korea mobile telecommuncations became the third korean firm to be listed on the nyse exchange adr in june 1996 . later that year south korea got its first commercial cdma is 95a network . operating in seoul in october it is considered one of the world s earliest commercial cdma networks . 1997 2000 international expansion edit sk group completed its takeover of kmtc in january 1997 as it became the world s sixth carrier to attain ten million subscrptions . around that time it also began constructing the northeast asian cdma belt encompassing china japan vietnam and the rest of the asian continent . in march 1997 to reflect new changes kmtc changed its name to sk telecom and in october netsgo an online service was launched . in june 1998 sk telink the international call service division started offering commercial overseas call service . in december 1998 sk teletech launched its first handset . in april 1999 sk telecom entered the mongolian market by co founding skytel llc with nearly 30 percent ownership stake . ttl a wireless plan targeting younger users and ntop a cellular internet service were launched in july and october 1999 respectively . in december 1999 sk telecom surpassed ten million subscriber mark the following month it launched the world s first commercial cdma2000 service . by the end of the year the carrier won a contract for asynchronous imt 2000 wcdma facility . 12 2001 2007 cellular internet and market accrual edit the new millennium ushered in an era of cross platform online networks that saw efforts to integrate mobile services as sk telecom was exploring new value creating models such as m commerce and satellite dmb service . in january 2002 an acquisition of shinsegi telecomm inc. was completed . 13 also in january the company deployed world s first commercial synchronous imt 2000 facility . in march 2002 the carrier struck international roaming deals between countries using cdma and gsm networks . an agreement was signed with israel s pele phone in april to sell proprietary software that will operate on the carrier s existing cdma network and future 1x cdma network . 14 in july a mou was signed with china unicom to establish a joint venture . in november two mobile applications june and moneta were launched . in july 2003 s fone a commercial cdma network became operative in vietnam . in august 2003 june became the world s first 3g service to have one million subscribers . in february 2004 sk won a contract for a joint venture with china unicom called unisk . march 2004 marked a new breakthrough with the launch of hanbyul the world s first dmb satellite . melon an online music store was launched in november 2004 . 1mm and loview a digital photo frame service were launched in april and november 2005 respectively . by december melon had four million subscribers . sk telecom started 2006 with record revenues of krw 10 trillion 92.8 billion . in may the world s first commercial hsdpa handset was released . may also saw the carrier s entry into the u.s. wireless communication market with helio . in june sk telecom signed a strategic partnership with china unicom to purchase cb worth 1 billion in its subsidiary china unicom hong kong . in the same month sk deployed its wibro internet network . in april 2007 a project to create td scdma china s 3g wireless broadbnad equivalent was signed with the chinese government . around that time s fone had two million subscribers in vietnam . 2008 present landline and new technologies edit in november 2008 sk signed an agreement to buy a controlling stake of fixed line phone company hanaro telecom for 1.09 trillion won 1.15 billion from a consortium led by aig and newbridge capital . the new entity will be the second largest telecom firm in terms of total assets and revenues next to kt corp. 15 in 2013 sk telecom was the world s first operator to offer a commercial lte advanced network . this coincided with the release of the samsung galaxy s4 lte a model which offered a step up cpu snapdragon 800 vs. snapdragon 600 used in the regular model and also lte advanced capabilities . sk telecom supported this handset at launch . 16 on july 6 2013 it was reported that apple was in talks with sk telecom to release the iphone 5s model on sk s lte advanced network . 17 services edit as of september 2012 sk telecom operates 2g is 95 cdma 2000 3g wcdma hspa 4g mobile wimax and lte networks . frequencies used by sk telecom s network in korea frequency frequency band frequency width mhz generation radio interface notes 800 mhz 824 829 869 874 10 2g cdma 850 mhz 829 839 874 884 5 20 3.9 g lte main frequency 1800 mhz 1715 1725 1730 1735 1810 1830 3 35 3.9 g lte 2100 mhz 1930 1940 2120 2130 1 20 3.9 g lte 2100 mhz 1940 1960 2130 2150 1 40 3.5 g umts hspa 2300 mhz 2300 2327 27 3.9 g mobile wimax 2g network supports cdma is 95a b cdma2000 and ev do . ev do handsets are marked with its service name june . 3g network supports wcdma hspa and hspa . sk telecom has the best hspa coverage in south korea . hspa is available in 50 major cities and towns while kt hspa is available in selected metropolitan areas . 3.9 g lte which uses both band 5 and band 3 supports multi carrier technology which sk telecom claims to be the first operator to offer . from may 2005 to september 2012 sk telecom provided s dmb through its subsidiary tu media later sk telink . s dmb service was ceased in september 2012 after significant losses in its final years . 18 sk telecom also provides online multiplatform entertainment business and financial services melon introduced in november 2004 melon is sk telecom s music e store which allows users to download or stream music over the internet . music can be played on mobile phones digital audio players portable media players and digital cameras . users can create their own ringtones . in 2009 loen entertainment an sk group record label became the company in charge of running melon . an indonesian version of melon was created in cooperation with pt telkom indonesia . m finance an online banking system introduced in 2001 allows users to take charge of all their financial transactions . properly equipped mobile phones can do basic banking such as wire transfers and checking balances as well as stock trading and credit card services . users can also withdraw cash from atms using their phones . digital home digital home allows users to control and monitor home appliances lighting security systems and fire alarms remotely . the service utilizes high speed internet telephone