Korea backpedals on Ericsson investment announcement
2009/07/15 08:41South Korean President Lee Myung Bak used his recent trip to Europe to announce a major investment from Ericsson:
The Korea Communications Commission (KCC), the country's broadcasting and telecommunications regulator, said Sunday that Ericsson, one of the world's leading suppliers of mobile phones and related network solutions, confirmed its commitment to use Korea as a LTE test bed.
The Swedish tech giant, one of the biggest players in the LTE bunch, will invest 2 trillion won (about $1.56 billion) over the next five years to establish a Korean research and development (R&D) center to test LTE technologies.
But after some newspaper reporters contacted the Swedish company, the details of the announcement faded away:
A day after the Korea Communications Commissions (KCC) announced that Ericsson will build a Korea-based research and development (R&D) center and create more than 1,000 jobs over the next five years, a company spokesman Monday said the announcement was merely a government ``guesstimate.''
The company has no plans to set up an R&D center here, the official said, when it hires about 3,500 engineers combined for its R&D centers in China and Japan.
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Ericsson issued a press release that outlined their plans in Korea:
Korea's president, Lee Myung-bak and Ericsson's newly appointed CEO, Hans Vestberg met in Stockholm, Sweden, to discuss how the smart use of telecommunications and IT can help Korea and the rest of the world to reduce CO2 emissions, as well as the role of the government and Ericsson in achieving this.
Korea, one of the world's most advanced ICT nation and Ericsson, leader in telecommunications, have identified mobile broadband and IT technologies as key enablers to create a green eco-system that will result in more sustainable society and therefore have decided to join in their efforts.
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