SK Telecom and KT, South Korea’s two largest mobile operators, are both thought to be lobbying Apple to include support for their respective LTE networks in the upcoming new version of the iPhone.

The so-called iPhone 5 – due in September – is expected to support LTE in the common spectrum bands used for the technology in the US, but the Korean operators are deploying LTE at different frequencies.

"KT is in negotiation with Apple to persuade the latter to support KT’s 1.8GHz frequency in Korea for the upcoming iPhone,’’ one ‘high-ranked industry source’ told the Korea Times.

The report claims that the officials from SK, the country’s largest operator, are currently at Apple headquarters in California lobbying the iPhone-maker on the same issue.

SK uses 800MHz as its main LTE band, while KT uses 1.8GHz. By comparison, in the US, Verizon Wireless uses 700MHz and AT&T uses both 2.1GHz and 700MHz.

Despite strong early uptake of LTE services in South Korea, Apple did not include LTE support for local versions of its latest iPad as it did elsewhere in the world.

"If Apple’s upcoming iPhone again fails to support LTE bandwidths, then this would be a very disappointing scenario as LTE is everywhere in Korea,’’ said a high-ranking SK Telecom executive.

According to the report, LTE subscribers in South Korea reached 8.4 million by the end of July. SK is the market leader on 4 million, followed by KT (1.4 million), and LG Uplus (over 3 million).