South Korea’s three mobile operators are working together to overturn government regulations which block foreign-designed handsets from the market, according to Cellular News which cites a report from the Korea Times. It states that the three networks – SK Telecom, LG Telecom and KTF – expect to be able to start selling handsets from the likes of Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Apple by the end of the year.

Nokia appears keen to act on the proposals. “We have always said that we are open to exploring opportunities in Korea if and when there is acceptance from Korean telecom operators of open mobile architecture,” Louise Ingram, Communications Manager of Nokia’s Asia-Pacific region, said in an email to the Korea Times newspaper. Nokia already has a large manufacturing facility in South Korea but all of its handsets there are currently exported. Local handset vendor Samsung is the world’s second largest mobile phone manufacturer in terms of market share.