Hyundai Group said Monday the company would bid to become the country’s fourth telecom along with a consortium led by the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business.

Hyundai Group’s affiliates such as Hyundai Securities and Hyundai U&I notified the consortium, called Internet Space Time, of their participation in the process, saying it would invest about 180 billion won, according to Hyundai officials. The total investment sum, however, may change, officials added.

“It’s true that we’ve decided to join the project to create a fourth telecom but a specific investment figure has yet to be fixed,” said a Hyundai official.

Hyundai Group said it would officially announce the investment plan as soon as the discussion between the two parties was complete. The group is projected to submit its application to the state telecom regulator Korea Communications Commission sometime next week.

This indicates that IST will compete with Korea Mobile Internet for the right to become the nation’s fourth telecom operator.

KMI, which won investment funds from the Dongbu Group, has already finalized its participation and submitted its application to the KCC in August.

KMI already failed twice to get the government’s authorization because it was not able to collect enough funds and win the government’s trust.

Korea’s telecom market has been dominated by three firms ― SK Telecom, KT Corp. and LG Uplus ― a situation unchanged during the past 10 years.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)