South Korea, Apple reportedly in iPhone talks
The Korea Times is reporting that Apple has been talking with South Korean based SK Telecom about the possibility of introducing an iPhone that would support its recently introduced LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) network.
"SK Telecom is approaching Apple to put our LTE-A technology on the upcoming iPhone 5S. We are in the middle of negotiations," said an SK Telecom executive, requesting anonymity.
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Because Korea has recently seen a huge demand for devices supporting high-speed networks, Apple intends to use Korea as the litmus test to gauge the marketability of LTE-A technology before making inroads into China, according to industry sources.
The report notes that Samsung recently introduced an LTE-A-compatible Galaxy S 4 device in South Korea and that SK Telecom anticipates a number of other LTE-A-compatible devices to hit the market over the next few months.
Now as for how fast LTE-A is, well let's just say that it's blazing. SK Telecom said that its LTE-A network can support data transfer rates of up to 150 Mbps, about twice as fast as LTE speeds in the US and 10 times as fast as 3G.
