Sacconaghi thinks Apple is likely to expand distribution to additional Asian carriers, including China Telecom, KDDI in Japan and LG Telecom in Korea.

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In South Korea, the country's three incumbent carriers, SK Telecom, KT Freetel, and LG Telecom, are already the defacto winners of three licenses.

CNN: Stuck On the Runway

As president of LG's telecom unit for eight years starting in 1998, he was famous for battling the loss of mobile subscribers by corralling employees from across the chaebol to sell his subscription plans.

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"We must have adequate content when we start 3G, " says Lee of LG, which like SK Telecom plans to offer 2.5G.

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The companies whose networks shut down Wednesday afternoon use not just LG Uplus' services but also other services from SK Telecom Co.

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