S.Korea's SK Telecom to launch 7 smartphones for 4G LTE service

South Korea's top wireless carrier SK Telecom said Wednesday that it planned to launch seven smartphones and one tablet PC within this year that use its fourth- generation (4G) long term evolution (LTE) network. According to an e-mailed statement, SK Telecom started selling Galaxy S2 LTE, which was rolled out by Samsung Electronics two days ago, from Wednesday, with one LTE smartphone from HTC Corp. to be sold this month. Samsung, the world's second-largest manufacturer of mobile phones, planned to unveil two additional smartphones, which supports the 4G LTE technology, through SK Telecom in October and November, while one tablet PC based on the 4G network would be released within this year. LG Electronics, the world's third largest phone maker, aimed to roll out its first 4G LTE smartphone in October through the largest mobile operator, while the nation's No.3 phone maker Pantech would release two LTE smartphones in October and December, according to the statement. Demand for the 4G LTE service is expected to surge as heavy data traffic for smartphones and tablet PCs can be handled through the service, which transmits data five times faster than the existing third-generation (3G) technology. SK Telecom started the LTE service in Seoul from July, aiming to offer the service nationwide by 2013. The wireless carrier took the advantageous position in the LTE service after winning the license for the 1.8 GHz spectrum band a month earlier. The so- called 'golden spectrum' is used for the super-fast 4G wireless network. The nation's No.1 mobile operator said it aimed to secure 500, 000 subscribers for its new LTE service by year-end, forecasting that new users for the service will increase 10-fold to 5 million in 2012 before surging to 15 million by 2014.