South Korean carrier KT follows SK Telecom into the US wireless market

When it comes to fancy 3G cellphones the US is practically a backwater compared with the wireless fantasyland that is South Korea, which could explain why the big South Korean carriers are so eager to get into the game over here. SK Telecom already cut a deal with Earthlink to create a mobile virtual network leasing capacity from both Sprint and Verizon, apparently now archrival KT is getting ready to enter the US market, too (you might recall that Japanese carrier DoCoMo invested in AT&T Wireless years ago). They claim they're going to take a different approach from SK Telecom (which probably means no hot MVNO action), and otherwise they're pretty vague about what precisely their plans are, but if there aren't any sweet EV-DO phones involved, we're going to be disappointed.

[Via textually.org]

[Justin @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

Huh. I'm still super excited about SK-EarthLink, but this KT announcement.... I just don't care. SK-E came along with a plan and good promise for the near future, MVNO or not. KT sounds like they're just blowing smoke, have no idea what they want to do, etc. If you're not an MVNO, you either have to build your own network (you know the US is quite a bit larger than SK, right?) or ... buy a CDMA carrier. They sure aren't buying Verizon, but maybe Sprint? They could always 'partner' with one, but then they'd still technically be an MVNO.

Whatever KT... =)

[Admiral @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

I hope they buy Sprint :D
Verizon is currently spoken for (Vodafone), t-Mobile is spoken for (T-Mobile :p) so it cannot be bought, Nextel is spoken for (sprint), cingular is the only one up for grabs...and they are so huge that I doubt anyone can afford to buy them :) - so sprint it is :D

I really hope they pioneer some dual mode CDMA/GSM phone soon :D

[num10ck @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

um don't forget t-mobile's deutch telecom. maybe they are planning on some crazy wi-max voip thing?