SK Telecom debuts cross-operator mobile social network

South Korean mobile operator SK Telecom announced the launch of Sky Buddy, a mobile social networking service that enables users to share user-generated content and information with fellow SK subscribers as well as consumers across Japanese carriers NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank. According to SK Telecom, Sky Buddy will feature real-time auto-translation to facilitate communication between users in Korea and Japan--the service also promises local language information services from Weathernews as well as Korea-Japan Info Zone, which includes information on more than 1,000 restaurants and tourist destinations in both countries.

SK Telecom will debut Sky Buddy in tandem with two new monthly flat-rate data plans: Sky Buddy Plan (which offers unlimited access to all Sky Buddy services without charging an extra data usage tariff) and Sky Buddy T Map Plan (which allows customers to use both Sky Buddy and the operator's T Map navigation services).

For more on Sky Buddy:
- read this release

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