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KT

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Korea's KT to bring Nexus One by late June

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In line with Google strategy on dropping Nexus One direct sales, Korea's KT is set to offer Nexus One by late June. KT will be the first operator in Asia to sale Nexus One. Previously Vodafone is the first operator outside USA to offer such thing. Lee Suk-chae, KT's chairman, confirmed that Nexus One brought will powered by Android latest OS, version 2.2 or also known as Froyo.

KT has claimed major success in Korea's smartphone market with skyrocketing sales of iPhone 3GS. Yet, smartphone war with its direct competitor, country's largest SK Telecom, pushes KT to bring more and more favored smartphones to market. SK Telecom is about to unveil Samsung Galaxy S and Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. 

No price plan revealed for this phone. Nexus One is Google own phone -- the first Android phone with updated OS2.2, offering some new features, including built-in portable hotspot and faster compilation performance.

Filed under  //  Android   Froyo   Google   KT   Korea   Nexus One  
Posted by Amir Karimuddin 
 

LG launched Andro-1, local version of GW620

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While LG GW620 has been around for a while, apparently even local Korea market hasn't tasted LG's first Android handset yet. Thus, KT officially offers a Korea version of GW620, named Andro-1 or KH5200, to local market for free with contract. 

Specs wise, Andro-1 is no different to GW620. OS 1.5, sliding full QWERTY keyboard, 5 megapixels camera, and 3 inch resistive touchscreen, with the possibility of OS 2.1 update in near future. I have played with this phone myself, and while its resistive screen isn't as responsive as capacitive one, the screen quality is quite superb. 

Did I mention it bears built-in FM radio too? This is something you hardly found in America-made smartphones. 

Filed under  //  Andro-1   GW620   KT   Korea   LG  
Posted by Amir Karimuddin 
 

Korea's KT to provide free Android smartphone

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The smartphone war is heating all over world, and Korea is no exception. While KT, second largest operator, has taken lot of profits from iPhone sales, they need to take Android market too to compete with their competitor. This time, KT is to provide a budget Android smartphone, possibly for free, if the term is met.

Offering an LG KH5200, a local version of already released LG GW620, KT is going to "gamble" by giving subsidize to customers if they agree to subscribe for monthly data plan.

If customers take a monthly KRW35,000 (US$30.6) data plan, they only need to pay KRW100,000 (US$87) for the handset. Moreover, if KRW45,000 (US$39) monthly data plan is taken, customer will be eligible to grab this phone for free. 

There's no further information about the timing required for this "contract", but bear in mind that it's said the factory price of this handset is KRW600,000 (US$525), thus KT sacrifices a lot to gain more loyal subscribers. 

LG KH5200 sports 3.2 inch touchscreen, full QWERTY keyboard, GPS, Wi-Fi, and external capacity for up to 32GB. 

Filed under  //  Android   KT   Korea   LG   LG GW620   LG KH5200  
Posted by Amir Karimuddin 
 

Tips for foreigners about using phone in Korea

Yesterday I have written a tips about using phone in Japan, today I am continuing with Korea. As neighboring country, Korea has quite similar history with Japan. They once applied a strict regulation about foreign phones.

Every phone needed to be complied with Wireless Internet Platform for Interoperability (WIPI). The policy was withdrawn on April 2009, but before that time the policy was withdrawing foreign phone vendors from entering Korea market.

Three big operators in Korea, SK, KT, and LG Telecom are based on CDMA network. In recent years, SK and KT had adopted 3G - CDMA interoperability, make it possible for 3G phone (GSM based) to be used in Korea fully, especially for data/Internet package. LG Telecom, however, as the smallest among three operators, is still depending on exclusive CDMA connectivity.

If you are a foreigner and planning to go visiting Korea for few days, you can either opting for international roaming or having phone rental service from either SK, KT, and Skype roaming (S roaming). Apparently 2G GSM phone are also eligible to have roaming there for voice call and SMS. You can't roam data package using 2G phone though.

The standard tariff for phone rental is around 3000 Won (US$2.6) per day, not including charge for voice and SMS. For more comprehensive information about this, please visit Visit Korea page, maintained by Korea Tourism Organization.

If you have additional information (or even question), feel free to share here.

Filed under  //  KT   Korea   LG Telecom   SK Telecom   foreigner  
Posted by Amir Karimuddin 
 

4G iPhone for Korea's KT this April?

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This news undoubtedly brings some shocks to Cupertino guys. As Apple is usually being so quite and try to prevent any leak about their new products, their partner from Far East -- Korea's KT -- is boldly stating to bring new version of iPhone on April for domestic market at the earliest.

High-rank execs of KT -- formerly known as Korea Telecom -- confirms that their side will sell next generation iPhone to big corporate clients first, then distribute it to mass on June.

KT, the second largest South Korea operator after SK Telecom and exclusive iPhone retail partner, reveals that the 4G iPhone will have major upgrade compared to current 3GS.

4G iPhone will sport OLED screen, live video chat (a front-facing camera is needed), better camera, dual core processors, and higher and more powerful graphics card. It's also likely to have a removable battery. Previously it's reported that Apple has ordered large quantities of 5 megapixels image sensors and LED flash modules.

It's unclear that 4G here means only fourth generation or it will literally support 4G connectivity, commonly known as Long Term Evolution (LTE). Nordics operator, TeliaSonera, currently launch a trial as the first operator introducing the 4G support. The other specs, dual core processors may raise speculation that 4G iPhone will be powered with Qualcomm's Snapdragon dual-core processor.

Analyst and KT officials agree that the early introduction of this new iPhone is a step to encounter high Android hype, especially about Nexus One. Also, don't forget that both two largest Korea companies, Samsung and LG, are supporters of Android open source OS.

For the record, from November to Jan 7, KT has sold 220,000 units of iPhone, which is good performance for the carrier. Surely, Apple and KT don't want to miss the moment.

[Korea Times via Applicious]

Filed under  //  4G iPhone   Apple   KT   Korea   iPhone  
Posted by Amir Karimuddin