NEWS IN BRIEF: SK Telecom, Bangladesh

Korean mobile SK Telecom's income declined 22% in 2008, falling to 1.27 trillion won ($918.8 million), due to price discounts, heavy infrastructure investment and sinking wireless internet revenue.

Revenue increased 3% overall to $8.39 billion, but wireless internet revenue fell 13% to $1.75 billion. Wireless internet's contribution to total revenue fell 4% to 23.4%, SKT said.

Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is investigating the state-owned Bangladesh Telecommunications Company (BTC) over allegations of a $5 million telegraph fraud.

BTC has spent over 297.6 million taka ($4.2 million) since 2001 operating 460 telegraph offices, which combined employ 883 members of staff, despite receiving only $28,000 in telegraph revenue over the period, the ACC alleges. At least $123,000 was taken out over budget.