SK Tel says to deploy LTE networks nationwide by April 2012

SEOUL Nov 15 (Reuters) - SK Telecom, South Korea's top mobile carrier, said on Tuesday that it planned to deploy Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks nationwide by April next year, eight months ahead of schedule, hoping that adoption of the faster service will boost sales.

The move will intensify competition over the fourth-generation networks after SK Telecom and smaller rival LG Uplus rolled out commercial LTE services in some parts of the country in July.

A SK Telecom spokeswoman said it will expand LTE coverage to 84 cities by April next year, covering 91 percent of the population. LG Uplus previously said it aimed to establish nationwide LTE services in the first half of next year.

Second-ranked mobile carrier KT Corp is seeking to catch up by rolling out LTE networks in the Seoul metropolitan area late this year.

LTE phones offered by the likes of Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics will compete with Apple Inc's iPhone, recently launched locally by SK Telecom and KT Corp.

As South Korea's mobile phone penetration rates topped 100 percent last year, operators are scrambling to generate new revenue streams. Smartphone subscribers, especially LTE subscribers, use more expensive pricing plans than traditional users.

The number of smartphone users in South Korea, which stood at 810,000 at the end of 2009, recently surged to 20 million, or over 80 percent of the country's economically active population.

But rapid smartphone user growth has failed to translate into strong sales growth for carriers amid declining tariffs. (Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)