For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 20, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Apple Inc. (AAPL), KT Corp. (KTC), SK Telecom (SKM), China Unicom (CHU) and American Express Company (AXP).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

South Korea Welcomes iPhone

Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) iPhone is finally reaching the hands of South Korean mobile users. The country’s telecom regulator Korea Communications Commission (“KCC") has granted Apple the license to sell the iconic handset in the domestic cell phone market. KCC has also lifted

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South Korea’s largest fixed-line carrier, KT Corp. (KTC), announced third quarter results with reported net income increasing 80% year over year to KRW351.4 billion (US$285 million) or KRW1,497 per share (70 cents per ADS). The annualized growth was driven by gains from wireless and a stronger Korean won versus the US dollar, which helped reduce the cost for foreign currency debt.   Revenues for the quarter increased 3.9% year over year to KRW4.82 triillion (US$1.97 billion), driven by growth in wireless data and subscriber base. However, operating profit declined 11.7% year over year to KRW413.1 billion (US$335 million) due to increase in depreciation and amortisation costs and higher marketing expenses resulting from intense competiion.   KT is battling with its Korean peers SK Telecom (SKM) and LG Dacom to win new customers in a highly matured domestic wireless market, represented by approximately 96% mobile penetration.   ...

Spanish Telecom giant Telefonica (TEF) and the second-largest Chinese carrier China Unicom (CHU) have reportedly concluded their cross investment as the companies have finished the $1 billion stake purchase in each other’s stock. As per the agreement terms, Telefonica has bought 693.91 million shares in China Unicom at HK$11.17 (US$1.44) each while China Unicom purchased 40.73 million Telefonica shares at €17.24 (US$25.8) each.   With the completion of this share swap transaction, Telefonica’s stake in China Unicom increased to 8.06% from 5.38%, further strengthening its foothold in the Chinese telecom market. On the other hand, China Unicom purchased 0.87% of Telefonica, making it the first Chinese carrier to invest in a leading European telecom company. Telefonica plans to further expand its stakeholding in China Unicom to 10%.   Additional stake purchase in China Unicom has further consolidated Telefonica’s position as the largest overseas investor in the Chinese ...

South Korea’s largest wireless carrier SK Telecom (SKM) announced plans to introduce its fixed-mobile substitution (“FMS") service. Assuming near-term approval of the service by the telecom regulator Korea Communications Commission, the company targets the commercial launch on Nov 1.   FMS refers to use of cellular handsets instead of wired or cordless landline phones for communication. This entails migration of voice minutes from fixed-line to wireless networks. FMS differs from fixed-mobile convergence, which allows users to switch between fixed-lines and mobile networks using a single dual-mode handset and two different technologies. Currently, FMS services are widely available in Europe.     SK Telecom’s FMS service allows customers to make calls within a designated area (called “Discount Zone") under the company’s network coverage. These calls will be charged at a discount rate which is the same as fixed-line VoIP (Voice-over-Inernet Protocol) service. Currently, tariffs levied on fixed-line VoIP ...

South Korea’s incumbent fixed-line carrier KT Corp (KTC) is launching a single rate plan for both local and long-distance calls. The new service plan, which requires customers to sign a three-year contract, will offer long-distance calls at KRW39 (US$0.03) per three minutes, at par with the local calling rate. Moreover, legacy landline customers who subscribe to an additional Internet phone line will be exempted from the KRW 2,000 (US$1.54) basic monthly fee levied for such services.  With approximately 19.5 million fixed-line subscribers, KT Corp is South Korea ’s dominant provider of traditional telephony services including local and international long distance calling services. The company controls approximately 90% of the local phone market and 85% of the long distance market in South Korea . Fixed-line telephone services represented roughly 34% of KT Corp’s 2008 revenues.  However, KT Corp continues to experience greater than expected declines in its ...

South Korea's incumbent wireless operator, SK Telecom (SKM), is set to launch T Store, the first mobile open market in Korea, on Sep 9. The upcoming on-line store will feature applications that are optimized for smartphones and other select regular handsets.

T Store will provide an open platform where content developers can sell their applications to users of mobile handsets based on the Wireless Internet Platform for Interoperability (WIPI), which allows cell phones to run applications regardless of manufacturer or carrier. Customers can download from a large assortment of multimedia content (approximately 6,500 applications), including games, phone decoration, music, broadcasting/movie and language/education that are categorized under eight main menus.

Registered content developers can sell their applications against a yearly registration fee, which is expected to be waived by the company by end of 2009 to boost developers' participation. The current revenue split is 70%/30% for the developers and SK Telecom,

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NTT DoCoMo (DCM), the largest wireless operator in Japan, together with its five vendors has developed major new specifications for a mechanism that delivers network-based value added services for IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS).

Other members in this collaboration are Alcatel-Lucent (ALU), LM Ericsson AB (ERIC), Fujitsu Ltd., NEC Corp., and Nokia-Siemens Network; a joint venture of Nokia Corp. (NOK) and Siemens AG (SI). This mechanism includes a service composition component that coordinates various applications using IMS session management service.

IMS is a set of specifications that describes the next-generation networking architecture for implementing IP-based telephony and multimedia services. It defines a complete architecture and framework that enables the convergence of voice, video, data and mobile network technology over an IP-based infrastructure.

IMS uses Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for easy integration with the Internet. This architecture was originally formulated to deliver Internet services over GPRS.

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – August 4, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: AT&T Inc. (T), NTT DoCoMo (DCM), Vodafone (VOD), Telefonica (TEF) and SK Telecom (SKM).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

AT&T Leads Global HSPA Market

AT&T Inc. (T) has reportedly emerged as the leading player in the global HSPA (high-speed packet access) market in terms of total subscriber connections. According to a recent report by the GSM Association, the second-largest US carrier has outpaced industry leaders such as

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SK Telecom (SKM) reported its second quarter earnings today, with net income falling short of consensus estimates while sales exceeded the average forecast. South Korea’s leading wireless operator reported revenue of KRW 3.07 trillion (US$2.39 billion) and net income of KRW 311.6 billion (US$243 million), both above our expectations.      Reported revenue grew 4.7% year over year and 6.7% sequentially, boosted by healthy growth in wireless Internet revenue and consistent increase in subscriber count. Operating income increased 3.8% year over year to KRW 553.4 billion (US$432 million). Net income increased 4.6% year over year while declining 1.6% from the previous quarter. Profitability was affected by higher marketing expenses (up 8.3% year over year and 44% sequentially) fueled by increased subscriber acquisition cost. The company reported wireless Internet revenues of KRW 671.2 billion (US$524 million), up 11.8% over the prior-year quarter, representing the highest level ...