Update: This news report has turned out to be incorrect, and no agreements have been made yet. More below.
According to MK English News, KT will begin to distribute the iPhone in Korea in July of this year. From the article, a high-ranking source in the mobile communications industry on Wednesday said, "KT has recently agreed with the largest mobile communications operator U.S.-based Apple to exclusively supply smartphone iPhone, and has confirmed to have started fine-tuning detailed procedures with Apple," and added, "Consequently, iPhone 3G or the new iPhone 3GS are expected to be released in July or August."
They will first launch the original iPhone model in July and the 3GS iPhone model in August or September. The company, which has newly grown by merging with KTF. This new KT is said to want to project its innovation image by representing the iPhone.
What has taken so long is that KT originally wanted to control the content available to iPhone users in Korea, as it does with its other handsets. The company was worried that the ringtones, games, and music that KT users have access to would be unavailable to its iPhone owning customers, because the iPhone already has a different distribution system set up for that kind of content. Also the company was worried about a drop in revenue from that kind of content. But now KT and Apple seem to have come to some sort of agreement which involves something with the tentative name of KT App Store, although the details are still sketchy.
Update continued: It looks like MK English News jumped the gun, and reported an agreement when there has not been one. My apologies.
