SEOUL (WiMAX Day). The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) in Korea has approved the acquisition of Hanaro Telecom by SK Telecom. SK won a 1.090 billion KRW bid for the company late last year, which was subject to the approval of government antitrust regulators.

Hanaro had been rumoured to be an SK takeover target for the last year.

At issue with the MIC was that the combined entity should not be able to “discriminate against its competitors.” SK and Hanaro joined forces last year to bundle SK’s fixed, mobile and WiBro services with Hanaro’s broadband Internet services. The bundled packages are priced well below its competitors who are unable to offer similar bundles.

WiBro is the Korean version of mobile WiMAX.

SK and Hanaro began to offer a bundled WiBro package last year in several cities in Korea. This allowed SK to roll-out its WiBro services faster than Korea Telecom, primarily riding on the huge broadband subscriber base of Hanaro.

Prior to the package arrangement last year, Hanaro also had a license to offer WiBro services, but had not the necessary capital to build a network, which many say prompted the partnership agreement with SK and the eventual acquisition.