Google Nexus One Incorporating Froyo Landing in Korea
KT, the exclusive Apple iPhone distributor in Korea, said Thursday it will begin to receive limited-units for pre-sale orders of the Google-designed Android phone, Nexus One. After the online pre-sale of 4,000 units, KT will offer online and offline sales from the end of next month.
The Korean version of Nexus One adopts the latest version of the Android operating system, Froyo, which is not the case with the global version of Nexus One which released in January in the U.S. The Google phone supports a Korean voice-search service with an echo-canceling microphone. Korean is the eighth language in which voice search is available, following English, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
The Nexus One, which is the first smartphone launched by Google, features a 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED screen, Qualcomm 1 Ghz Snapdragon processor and a 5-megapixel camera.
Thanks to USIM country-unlocked, Nexus One users are able to use any USIM from a local mobile carrier while abroad. Even now, Korean WCDMA operators, KT and SK Telecom, are locking the USIM in most of their mobile phones, even if the telecom regulator KCC orders that USIM be unlocked.
With a Wi-Fi access-point function, the Nexus One can be used a portable hot spot to connect a notebook PC to the Internet by converting the 3G network to Wi-Fi.
The price tag of the Nexus One is set at 699,600 won. A two-year contract of 150,000 won with the i-Light package. The iPhone was 260,000 when it released last November. Recently, KT cut the iPhone price tag to 132,000 won.
In the meantime, SK Telecom, the leading mobile carrier in the local market, is launching a series of Android-phones from diverse manufacturers, including Motorola, Samsung, HTC, Sony Ericsson and Pantech. KT can now compete utilizing both the Nexus One and iconic iPhone smartphone.
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> Korean WCDMA operators … are locking the USIM … even if the telecom regulator KCC orders that USIM be unlocked
So, let’s say the KCC orders that the USIM be unlocked, but the vendor locks it anyway. Someone get the phone, then trys to use their own unlocked USIM. Of course, it won’t work.
Does the customer have any recourse then? Can they complain to the carrier and get the phone unlocked, like required to do in the first place? If not the carrier, can the customer complain to the KCC?
Ditto that, I’ll be very interested to see if there would be any official response to this blatantly anti-competitive behaviour of Korean telecommunication companies, which has gone on for way too long despite the grave grieve it is causing to both Korean and foreign residents.