Today is going to be a BIG day for me !!!

Why? There is going to be an announcement from the Korea Communications Commission(KCC) on their decision whether they will allow iPhone to be sold in Korea. iPhone's debut in Korea has been an issue ever since it's appearance. At first everybody was skeptical. (The following content is much more based on the rumors I heard with my personal opinion. SO DO NOT RELY ON IT TOO MUCH IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR SOLID FACTS.)

First of all, Korea's telecommunications market was very closed. Korea had it's unique  platform called Wipi for wireless devices which was developed and supported by the Korean government. All mobile communications devices were required to be built based on the platform. Eventually, the requirement has been loosen as of April 2009. Because of the investment the government has made, I guess it was a harsh decision for them to make. Anyway, in spite of this action which already caused the delay of the iPhone debut, there were other problems waiting to cause more disappointment for the Mac fans.

The carriers such as SKT, KT(KTF before), and LGT all hesitated to provide service for the iPhone. Obviously a large portion of the carriers' income was made by charging their subscribers for data packet communication. For that reason, the carriers sold a lot of smart phones without built in Wi-Fi support. The early adopters who were eagerly waiting for a mobile device capable of cheap Internet access became mad about the carriers' marketing strategy. Public opinion on those greedy carriers started to emerge and the Korean's started to question whether we will be able to remain strong in the Information Technology(IT) industry under the circumstances(Koreans think that Korea has it's strength in the IT sector which is true to some extent). However, at some point, LGT started a service called Oz with a fixed payment plan for reasonable data packet communication. I am not sure whether this suddenly caused the urge for servicing iPhone for the other carriers, but there were rumors starting to emerge that SKT and KT will start servicing iPhone. Well, this rumor has been around for a while since late last year, but it never sounded true until this summer. There were news that SKT and KT were carefully considering servicing the iPhone. But then, not surprisingly(because we all knew that iPhone's appearance in Korea will not be a dream come true so easily) KCC suddenly raises a question whether the iPhone will be a legal product to be sold within Korea. It is said that there is a stupid law dedicated to Location Based Services(LBS), which requires all location based service providers to acquire a license for the service they provide. I really don't understand what it means and what was intended for that part of the law, but anyway this caused more delay.

It seems like there has been a debate about whether the licensing procedure is really necessary and KCC announced that they will address their decision today. Hopefully we will be able to see iPhone in Korea in the near future... According to a friend who is working for SKT, iPhone is under testing for the services they provide. So maybe I'm guessing that we will be able to get iPhone in our hands by mid October or early November?

Anyway... Today is a big day for me !!!