South Korea's KT has won its court battle against rival SK Telecom's advertising for its tri-band LTE-Advanced network, with a court agreeing that the operator was engaging in deceptive advertising.
A Seoul court banned SK Telecom from running advertising stating that it had become the first operator to commercialize tri-band LTE-A services, the Korea Heraldsaid.
The court held that SK Teleom has not commercialized services, so the ad includes false and exaggerated information. This was found to be potentially market-distorting, so the court ordered the ads pulled.
KT took its rival to court over the ads earlier this month, arguing that because handsets that support tri-band LTE-A are not yet on the market, it is misleading to claim that the network has been commercialized.
SK Telecom has agreed to stop the ads, but has also stated that it is considering appealing the verdict in a higher court.
Last week, KT also accused SK Telecom of violating regulated handset subsidy caps, in another example of the grudge match between the two competitors.
SK Telecom's tri-band LTE-A network combines spectrum in the 800-MHz, 1.8-GHz and 2.1-GHz bands. The company claimed to have launched the network at the end of last year.