Earthlink Teams Up With SK-Telecom

An anonymous reader writes "In a press release issued today, EarthLink, Inc and SK Telecom (Korea's leading mobile communications company) announced a definitive agreement to form a joint venture to market wireless voice and data services in the U.S called SK-Earthlink Hopefully this means we here in the US will finally get some of those cool phones we hear so much about in other countries..."

Comments

This could be Huge

[EggMan2000]

Here is a snip from the press release that is really exciting. I used to read Justin's Links and was always facinated by the features and funtions of mobile tech in Asia. I know there will could be a wave of enthusiastic early adopters. Especially if SK-Earthlink launches well in big cities.

"The wireless and Internet worlds are colliding, and neither will be the same again," said EarthLink founder and director Sky Dayton who will serve as chief executive officer of the SK-EarthLink joint venture. "In South Korea, kids on the street are using their mobile phones to listen to music, watch TV, videoconference, locate their friends, and access the Internet--as well as make voice calls--as opposed to the U.S. where the mobile experience is primarily about talking on the phone. Americans are living in the past. Utilizing emerging 3G networks and harnessing the explosive growth of Wi-Fi, SK-EarthLink will take the wireless experience in the U.S. to a new level."

I agree that Americans are living in the past, with the small exteptions of the T-Mobile Sidekick and the N-Gage the vast majority of mobile phone users or just talking or texting.

Americans Living in the Past

[Thunderstruck]

For all the commentary about "Americans" living in the past, few folks ever take culture or geography into account before they start slinging disparaging remarks. I urge all to consider the following:

1. Citizens of most States* live in sparsely populated areas, areas where the introduction of ordinary cellular service is not even in place because there are simply too few customers to support it. (In fact, only a few miles from my home is a town which bears the honor of being the last municipality in the nation to get access to land-line service, just a few years ago.)

2. In many States, electronic communication is considered impersonal and stand-offish. People are looking for more ways to engage in personal contact rather than through electronic means. This is one reason for 75mph speed limits.

3. Another cultural issue is the common preference for different appliances to do one specific thing. There is a large market for multi-watt "bag-phones" that do not even handle text, in more rural areas. (Largely because you can't operate one of those new phones while wearing thick leather gloves and driving a truck with the window rolled down.)

*The term "Citizens of most states" is used intentionally, rather than "Most Citizens of the States."

Dropless carrier?

[Doc Ruby]

Maybe we'll finally get some of those mobile connections that don't just drop, like we hear about so much in other countries. If that's CDMA EV-DO VoIP, or UMA WiF/3G roaming, so much the better.

Any spam leverage for Earthlink?

[ScentCone]

One wonders, as domestic ISPs get into bed with Korean data/telecom companies, if there's any leverage there when it comes to the insufferable flood of Korean-originated spam and that peninsula's cracker population. I know, it comes from everywhere, but lately I've been getting crushed by doorknob rattlers and Viagra salesmen from Korea. There are times when the only way to keep down the noise for twenty or thirty servers is to block out a whole Class B of addresses.

This is, of course, going to ultimately trip up legit Korean access to stuff I run for my customers, but the problem is completely out of hand. Anyone else suffering from this, and wondering if people like Earthlink wouldn't also be stomping their feet a bit to clamp down on it? Especially now that there's more money on the table.