South Korea's SK Telecom to Launch iPhone on March 16th

[Mapmonkey]

I was in South Korea last year. I was carrying my iPhone 3G that I purchased in Australia. Why don't phones purchased from other countries work in Korea I understand that they are on a much advanced Mobile network similar to Japan. So, I ended up renting a simple mobile phone from the airport..

It didn't work because it wasn't whitelisted. Before Dec 2010 foreign handsets had to be approved via an expensive testing process. Now it's possible to register you handset online.

Over UMTS-3G.

They don't have a GSM (2G) side, AFAIK. (There might be some GSM-GPRS networks around, though.)

SK Telecom uses a CDMA2000 network, with support for 1X voice, EVDO 3G Rev A and UMTS 3G with HSPA.

Just as UMTS-3G was tacked onto older GSM-2G networks, in this case UMTS-3G was tacked onto an older CDMA2000 network.

Pretty much nailed it. There has never been a GSM network of any frequency band in South Korea. One of the reasons folks here had to put up with AMPS for another two years whilst everyone was getting GSM. KMT/Shinsegi now SK both started with IS95 CDMA at 900. LG and KTF rolled out later at 1900.
At some point SK and KT went with 3G UMTS on top. LG and I guess Verizon in the US didn't.

Apple's classification of the two iPhone models is misleading. The GSM model is really both a 3G UMTS and a 2G GSM device. They are totally different technologies. So your "GSM model" works because it's a 3G model too.

(KT=KTF=olleh)

 

[Signal-11]

It didn't work because it wasn't whitelisted. Before Dec 2010 foreign handsets had to be approved via an expensive testing process. Now it's possible to register you handset online.

I kept hearing different dates and different procedures.

I am under the impression that the iPhone 4 has received a class exemption and that all a person has to do is go to a KT corporate store to register an IMEI. Anyone done this?

 

[puercaeli]

I kept hearing different dates and different procedures.

I am under the impression that the iPhone 4 has received a class exemption and that all a person has to do is go to a KT corporate store to register an IMEI. Anyone done this?

Yes that legislation is no longer in effect as of 24.Jan I think.
iPhone does not require certification as you have correctly mentioned it received class exemption as Apple certified it already. Other devices not certified yet can still be used(one model per person). Certification process is registration based system(not actual certification like it used to be)

more info can be found here. SK does this as well but I am not so familiar with their site...

http://expatblog.kt.com/36(Not English)
http://shop.olleh.com/ollehshop/Cellphone/Globalbuy.jsp?brandType=GA0(Korean)

Now I am not sure if you are locked into iPhone plan only but this used to be the case so I guess it still is the case...

 

[w00t951]

I go to Korea for the summer. Does this mean that my AT&T (GSM) iPhone 4 will get reception? I remember last year, when my AT&T World Edition Blackberry couldn't connect.

 

[puercaeli]

I go to Korea for the summer. Does this mean that my AT&T (GSM) iPhone 4 will get reception? I remember last year, when my AT&T World Edition Blackberry couldn't connect.

How long will you be staying? They dont have prepaid sim(like GoPhone) so if it is short term it may not be feasible.

But in terms of working, they should work fine as long as your iPhone has been unlocked(which I dont think AT&T allows?? not sure)