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Domestic mobile phone owners will be able to use their handsets in Japan, with access to most of the mobile services available in Korea, starting from May at the earliest. The two countries co-host the 2002 FIFA World Cup starting from the end of May.
Japanese telecommunications firms, including Sanyo, have put out cell phones that could be used in Korea in the past but Korea has never developed any that could be used in both countries.
SK Telecom, the country¡¯s largest mobile phone service provider, announced Monday that it plans to market handsets offering the roaming service for both Korea and Japan to subscribers of 011 and 017 mobile services in May, adding that the handsets have been developed by Samsung Electronics.
The roaming service had been available in part between Korea and Japan and Korea and China for Korean subscribers in the past but they had to borrow different handsets upon leaving Korea for these neighboring countries.
SK Telecom also signed a joint service contract with two Japanese mobile carriers, KDDI and NTT DoCoMo, in April and November, respectively, last year.
(Cho Hyung-rae, hrcho@chosun.com )
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