KT Corp. to invest $4.3 billion through 2014 to boost its infrastructure.(KOREA)

South Korea's biggest landline telecom operator, KT Corp. (Korea Telecom), announced that it plans to invest $4.3 billion through 2014 to augment its telecom infrastructure to accommodate advanced devices like smartphones. KT is also the second-biggest mobile operator of Korea and exclusively distributes Apple's iPhone in the country. South Korea, which has a population of 49 million, has a mobile penetration rate of 45 million. However, smartphones are yet to gain widespread acceptance in the country. The telecom operator has already announced its plan to spend $2.03 billion on 3G networks, $1.41 billion on LTE (Long Term Evolution) services, and $677.22 million on Wi-Fi/WiBro networks. Smartphones contributed only 2 percent to 3 percent of the total handsets in Korea by November 2009, as opposed to Japan, where they accounted for 30 percent. The firm, which is set to launch the iPhone 4 shortly, aims to sell 1 million tablet PCs and 6 million smartphones by the end of 2011.