South Korea's KT will this month join its mobile rivals in offering LTE-Advanced services to its subscribers.
The company last week acquired 15-MHz of 1,800-MHz spectrum in a spectrum auction for a reported 900 billion won ($819.2 million). SK Telecom also secured new 1,800-MHz spectrum, and LG U+ picked up bandwidth on the 2.6-GHz frequency.
KT's new 1,800-MHz bandwidth will allow the operator to provide LTE-A services, KT president Pyo Hyun-myung told reporters at a press conference covered byYonhap Daily.
KT will launch LTE-A in Seoul this month, expand the service to five other cities by March 2014, and provide nationwide LTE-A coverage by July 2014.
The company currently operates some 100,000 mobile base stations and has around 6.5 million LTE customers.
SK Telecom was the first operator in South Korea, and depending on definition has a claim of being the first in the world, to launch commercial LTE-A services back in late June. The company had signed up 300,000 LTE-A subscribers after the first month of operation, and 350,000 after the first six weeks.
LG U+ meanwhile launched LTE-A services on July 18 after tapping Ericsson-LG, LG Electronics' local JV with Ericsson, to conduct the rollout.