Korea Telecom (KT), an exclusive iPhone partner in South Korea, and a provider of Mobile WiMAX in Korea, plans to introduce a 4G iPhone to their domestic market as early as April, reports the Korea Times.
KT sold 220,000 3G iPhones from November last year to Jan. 7th, and hopes to sell 500,000 iPhones, including the 4G ones, by the end of this year, a KT spokesman said. KT will sell the devices to its corporate clients as a “litmus test” in April, KT officials said. KT plans to provide the upgraded iPhones to local distributors in June, says the Korea Times.
Korea Telecom currently offers Mobile WiMAX (WiBro) for $22 a month with 30GB data usage. Coverage for their “4G” WiMAX service includes Seoul, Incheon, Gyeonggi-do.
KT has aggressively pushed WiBro service in South Korea, attracting some 150,000 subscribers by the middle of 2008. However, the Korean government originally allowed only data service through WiBro – not voice – limiting the potential market. Cellular provider SK Telecom also has WiBro licenses but has been less enthusiastic since it is also a cellular carrier. KT is the dominant wireline carrier.
KT is the 2nd largest wireless carrier in South Korea with nearly 14 millions subs, with SK Telecom the largest. South Korea will have a total of 55.3 million mobile subscribers in 2013 with market share of SK Telecom increasing to 50.6%, estimates Research and Markets
“We don’t see any bigger hurdle to introduce 4G iPhones here, as legal issues were completely cleared. It’s possible to launch the devices within the first half,” a high-ranking KT executive told The Korea Times, asking not to be identified.They said the coming 4G iPhones will be equipped with organic light emitting diode (OLED) screens on surface and live video chat functionalities, while removable battery is highly likely.
The new 4G iPhone is also going to be loaded with dual core processors and higher and powerful graphic chips that can deliver higher video resolutions and better “still” images when taking pictures.
“With KT, we’ve been in talks with other telecom carriers to gauge the launching timing of 4G iPhones in South Korea. More tech-oriented features will be added to the models,” a representative of Apple’s South Korean office said.
WiMAX-enabled iPhones make sense.
Carriers can’t deliver the bandwidth iPhone users demand.
Apple’s tablet would just make the problem worse. It’s expected to feature media-enhanced content from newspapers and magazines and video downloads.
If the iPhone is getting WiMAXed in South Korea, then it seems likely that Clear and Sprint will get it in the United States. Clearwire is prepping the NY & SF Markets, says Unstrung.
Still, Clear has been saying that a WiMAX phone is not expected until the end of the year. Devices from Samsung, HTC or LG will use the Sprint network for voice calls, say Clearwire officials
Although it’s just idle speculation, another option for Apple in the United States might be T-Mobile – especially if they buy spectrum from Clearwire for their own “4G” service.
Apple is rumored to have struck a deal with Qualcomm for dual-carrier HSPA+ and 3G/LTE chipsets which could launch in the second half of 2010. Beceem’s BCSM250 single-chip solution provides 4G-WiMAX/WiBro Wave 2 connectivity for handsets.
Intel’s i5-520UM low-voltage processor ($278) has a TDP of 18 Watts, but a $1200 tablet would not be a game changer. That’s a laptop segment. The Cortex A9 (or Tegra 2), might be a better bet for Apple’s tablet. It maintains compatibility with current iPhone apps, costs less than Atom designs and uses less power. It represents the next generation ARM and supports multi-core designs. The iPhone uses an ARM Cortex-A8 derivative now, along with a PowerVR GPU.
In Japan, UQ Communications and Samsung are deploying Mobile WiMAX. “By the end of March 2013, more than 93 percent of the population will enjoy high-quality and high-speed mobile broadband service,” said Takashi Tanaka, president of UQ Communications.
Samsung plans to provide the first trial solutions of Mobile WiMAX Release 2 (120 Mbps) for Yota in Russia, Clearwire in the United States and UQ Communications in Japan, and intends to work closely with other major operators. Clearwire’s CTO, John Saw, told Unstrung last week that they’re watching the specification but won’t be rushing to test the technology. “I don’t think it’s going to be this year. I think it’s going to be much more likely 2011,” says Saw of any trial timeline.
