Decrypted iPhone Confusion: KT vs KTF, KT Freetel, Korea Telecom, KT ICOM
Amidst the iPhone in Korea mess, one annoying piece of the confusion for me has been trying to figure out if KTF, KT, Korea Telecom, KT Freetel and KT ICOM are all the same, or different companies. To add to the confusion, they’ve been in talks for years about mergers between different divisions of the same company using very similar names, even back to around when South Korea hosted the FIFA World Cup in 2002.
What’s worse, there’s all kinds of blogs and news sites with even more confusing information containing misleading and false information, and even blatantly obvious fake advertisements like this one:
가짜 KT 아이폰 광고.
After searching the internet and the news, and asking locals of the land of kimchi soup for translations, I have realized that KT and KTF are the same company. KTF and KT ICOM are subsidiaries of KT Corporation, and KT Freetel is the same as KTF.
This is to clarify which KT is which, once and for all:
KTF, a subsidiary of KT Corporation, is the second largest mobile carrier in Korea
KT Freetel is also known as KTF
KT ICOM is the subsidiary of KT Corporation responsible for WCDMA technology
KT Corporation is South Korea’s largest land-line telephone service provider.
Recently, there have been news everywhere about KTF, KT, Korea Telecom, and SK Telecom and the anticipated debut of the Apple iPhone in South Korea. The iPhone is still unavailable in South Korea, home of the largest manufacturers of handsets in the world.
August 6th, 2009 at 4:48 am
[...] 한국의 대표적인 이동통신 업체인 SKT와 KT, 두 회사 모두 iPhone 도입을 위해 애플과 협의를 진행 중으로 [...]
August 10th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
[...] Kim Yeon Hak, Chief Financial Officer, KTF [...]
October 28th, 2009 at 11:17 am
[...] have a high-bandwidth 4G connection for about $20/month with KT Telecom plus the cost of the “egg” (sometimes called the Yota Egg for about $200). You can [...]
October 28th, 2009 at 11:41 am
[...] 한국의 대표적인 이동통신 업체인 SKT와 KT, 두 회사 모두 iPhone 도입을 위해 애플과 협의를 진행 중으로 [...]