South Korean operator SK Telecom is apparently “in the middle of negotiations” with Apple for the creation of an iPhone 5 with support for LTE-Advanced technology, supporting the operator’s recently announced 4G network upgrade.

The operator announced availability of LTE-Advanced in several regions last week, supported by a new version of Samsung’s Galaxy S4 smartphone. According to the Korea Times, SK has already approached Apple for an iPhone 5S supporting the technology, with an unnamed executive arguing that “there’s no reason for Apple not to use the LTE-A technology”.

It was noted that Qualcomm, which supplies processors to Apple for the iPhone, is already behind the Samsung device.

SK’s LTE-Advanced network will offer theoretical peak download speeds of 150Mb/s, and the operator has promised a total of seven LTE-A compatible smartphones in the second half of this year.