Industry sources said...South Korea's mobile phone operators plan to introduce domestic roaming services between Europe's Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) and South Korea's code-division multiple access (CDMA).
The roaming service will allow customers with a GSM format mobile phone service carrier and those with CDMA standard mobile phone carriers to use each other's networks when foreigners visit South Korea.
KFT has developed a gateway and certification technology compatible for GSM phones since early this year and is in talks with such GSM operators as Huchison. The Korean firm plans to launch the service in October.
SK Telecom and SK Shinsegi Telecom have negotiated with major European GSM operators including BT Cellnet in preparation for a similar service scheduled for early next year.
LG Telecom, in the process of developing a high-frequency chip for GSM standard phones, has drawn up a plan to begin the service before the 2002 World Cup finals to be co-hosted by South Korea and Japan.