How To Use Your iPhone in Korea
4 Steps to Using Your iPhone in Korea NOW:
Step 1: Get a WiMAX subscription with your Korean mobile phone company
Step 2: Get a wireless router for your WiMAX called an “egg”
Step 3: Get your iPhone or iPod Touch
Step 4: Get Skype
If you have a WiMAX subscription, you can get a router called an “egg,” manufactured by a company called Interbro (branded as Yota in Korea) to use with your iPhone or your iPod Touch. The “egg” turns into a WIFI hotspot, with speeds up to 4 megabits per second. The Egg’s battery lasts an impressive 5 hours, an hour longer than my MacBook. That is faster than most high speed cable connections anywhere in the world. KT has their WiBro service everywhere, including the subways.
KT offers 30 gigabytes of data transfer at speeds up to 4 megabits per second for $20 per month. This is a much, much better than Verizon Wireless’s similar offering in the US called MiFi for $60 for only 5 gigabytes of data transfer.
I currently use my iPhone everywhere here in Korea, and I also use Skype daily to make phone calls home to the US. I’ve used my Skype iPhone App on my iPhone, and it works great. Now you can use your Skype account to make phone calls anywhere in the world for CHEAP. I pay $30/year for a US-based phone number (you can also get a Korean phone number), and $10/month for unlimited phone calls anywhere in the world. Some countries are limited to just land-lines. Fortunately, there are no surcharges to mobile phones in the US and Canada.
There’s been talk for 3 years about the iPhone reaching the Korean shores. There’s a ridiculous amount of hype about it, but its still not here. For now, I’ve found my own band-aid fix to use my iPhone in Korea.
See Also:
How To Use Your iPhone in Korea Without Skype (Full Mobile Phone Capability)
Do Korean SIM cards work in the iPhone in Korea?
Why is the iPhone not in Korea?
September 13th, 2009 at 8:06 am
Hi,
Thanks a lot for the really useful article.
Alex
October 6th, 2009 at 3:58 am
Hi,
Great website! Lots of good information on here and glad to see someone out there trying to compile all the conflicting and hodgepodge info about the iPhone in Korea.
A big question I think people are gonna have is, if you currently HAVE an iPhone, and assuming you unlock it successfully, do you think SK or KT will offer sim cards for those iPhones? Or do you think the consumers will have to buy the phone separately?
My iPhone is from Japan and I know that if I did not buy a Softbank (mobile carrier company) iPhone, they would not give me a SimCard.
I plan on purchasing a permanent phone here in Korea, but I have this Japanese iPhone (that I am willing to unlock and claim it was from China, since China is the only country that sells unlocked iPhones) and would love to use it in Korea instead of buying a Korean cell phone.
What are your thoughts?
Thanks in advance!
Whipple
October 7th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Whipple,
When the iPhone does come to Korea, as of right now, you definately won’t be able to use a KT or an SK SIM card and simply swap out your Japanese SIM card. The actual registration number, or serial number of the phone needs to be registered with KT or SK Telecom for it to function in Korea. This is a government regulation rule.
I will be very surprised if the Korean government no longer requires this when the iPhone finally does arrive in Korea. I hope this answers your question.
October 12th, 2009 at 5:17 am
where i can get it ?
October 12th, 2009 at 6:11 am
The iPhone is not in Korea quite yet. It is supposedly coming very soon. I will post immediately once I hear news. At this point, it will most likely be available from KT, aka Korea Telecom, and possibly both KT and SK Telecom.
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:06 am
My station is Casey. I asked the guy work at USO about EGG. they said they never heard about it . Could you please explain how I can found it and where? ps…..
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Hello. Great website.
I was wondering if i will be able to use all of my other apps along with any new apps from the apple store when I use the “egg”. Im currently in Korea with my US iphone and havent been able to use it, and I really need to. Also, how much is the WiMAX subscription and how does that work? Thanks in advance.
October 28th, 2009 at 11:09 am
[...] simply by inserting a Korean network SIM card. I know it’s frustrating. The best way to use an iPhone in Korea is to either purchase an iPod Touch or an iPhone and dealing with what’s available for the [...]
November 2nd, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Interesting proposition here, though I’d assume you’d have to keep your skype open and connected to maintain “callability”…battery killer! The other downer, is of course, that KT Wibro is only out in Seoul and Kyeonggi….those of us in Jeolla are left in the dark again. Just you watch, when January rolls around, we’ll cut off your strawberry supply up there! Revenge, I tell you! Guess I’m looking forward to still carrying around two devices on me no matter which direction I look…
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:28 am
[...] How To Use Your iPhone in Korea Using Skype and WIFI [...]
November 8th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Where can I pick up an “Egg” in Seoul?
November 8th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
How much service on average do you find yourself using per month?
December 3rd, 2009 at 7:13 am
Anyone know if they rent these at the airport?
December 14th, 2009 at 8:53 am
The iPhone’s come out recently in Korea. I went to get one, had to wait around for a few hours as my employer was the one who actually had to sign up for the service plan (KT doesn’t work with foreigners). And when it finally came time for me to shell over $700 for the phone, they mention that I won’t be able to get service on it in the US when I return in 6 months. hm, $700 now for a phone when I’ll spend $200 to buy the same phone upon my return to the US in six months? No, thank you. Locking phones to one service provider really needs to be illegal under international law… and the world needs to use a single phone frequency (3G’s a start, but not quite there, yet)…