I have a shiny, new iPhone sitting on my desk, still cradled in its box. A complimentary case is parked right next to it, package unopened. The reason being that I don’t yet know if I get to keep it.

After all of the rumors, confusion, and misinformation around about foreigners buying iPhones in Korea (some of which I wrote about here), it turned out that my particular problem was quite simple. After having been told, I thought, by one shop that KT was in the middle of upgrading their system and no foreigners would be able to buy a new iPhone until Feb. 1st, I read on a blog post somewhere that a guy had just gotten one early in the last week of January. He also went on to mention that the policy had apparently changed again. As an F-4 visa holder, he was supposed to have been eligible for the 24-month payment plan, but found he was forced to pay for the whole thing up front, thereby losing the subsidy. He hinted that this was true for all F-series visa holders (and I can’t, unfortunately, find the post now to link to it). A bit miffed, I stopped at a different shop later that day en route to one of my classes to inquire.

The first thing I wanted to know was whether or not foreigners could, at that time, buy an iPhone. When that was answered in the affirmative, I then wanted to know if I was eligible for the 24-month plan. That came back in the negative. I asked if this was a new policy of KT, that all foreigners were required to pay upfront, regardless of visa status. The clerk had no idea, but gave me a KT customer support number to call and find out. Not trusting my Korean enough to discuss a topic like this over the phone, I handed the number off to my brother-in-law when I got home that evening.

After running around in circles for several minutes with the customer service rep, he was referred to an insurance company. That was a bit of a surprise. It turns out that every time someone signs up for a 24-month plan with any telecom in Korea, that plan is insured. I don’t know the details of the insurance, or which company it is. Furthermore, there are limits on how many simultaneous active payment plans any individual can have. For Koreans, this is three or four. For foreigners, it’s two. If you are at the limit, you have to pay the full amount upfront for any cell phone service plan you want to purchase. Only after you have paid off one of the 24-month plans can you sign up for another.

Eureka! I finally understood my problem. Back in August, I lost my Samsung Haptic 2 cell phone and bought a new Samsung Amoled. Both were on 24-month plans, and I’d only had the Haptic 2 for just over 8 months when I lost it. So I was unable to sign up for a 24-month iPhone plan because I was already paying for two plans, the maximum for a foreigner. Given that the iPhone plan I wanted (called the iPremium, which includes 800 minutes of phone time, 300 text messages, and 3GB of data transfer) is quite pricey, one of the two plans needed to be paid off. Given that there was only 300,000 won (just under $300US) remaining on the Haptic 2, over 400,000 won less than the Amoled, it was a no-brainer.

So, today, I had a little time between exercise with the trainer and my scaling appointment with a local dentist. So I headed on over to a cell phone agent I’d dealt with a few times before. He’s one of the multi-telecom agents that works with SK, KT, and LG. I explained the situation, paid off my Haptic (which was with SK), did all the necessary paperwork to sign up with with KT (exclusive iPhone dealer) and transfer my phone number from my Amoled (also with SK). Then I paid the 30,000 won service fee all new telecom customers have to pay (if I later get another phone with KT, I won’t need to pay that fee), and all was ready to go. The agent said it would take a while to process, as KT was pretty overloaded these days. So he put everything in a bag and asked me to give him a call later to see if everything was set up. At that point, I’d be able to hook up with iTunes and start making phone calls.

Two hours later, after I had left the dentist’s office and was on my way to teach my evening class, I was still getting messages and phone calls on my Amoled. Not a good sign. Two hours later still, the Amoled was still working. On my way home, I dropped by the shop to find out what was going on. For whatever reason (time of month, normal procedure, or whatnot), the payment I made on the old Haptic 2 hadn’t yet registered with the insurance database. So I was still precluded from signing up for the 24-month plan. The agent had called around and learned that all should be well tomorrow. So, he would try to get me in the system again and I should give a call to find out if all went well.

At this moment, it’s just after 6 am the next day (I am such a slow typist, I’ve been working on this post for over 20 minutes). The iPhone is sitting there, powered off, beckoning me. Will it still be in my possession at the end of the day? Will it be functioning? I really don’t know. My fingers are crossed, but I’m not counting on it. I’m really expecting that there will be another hitch and that I’ll have to wait longer. I should find out in about six or seven hours, before or after I hit the gym. Wish me luck

Last Tuesday I attempted to buy an iPhone in Seoul and failed. Even though I have an F-5 visa which, according to information released by Korea Telecom, makes me eligible to be treated the same as a Korean (and well it should, given that this visa even allows me to stand in the line for Korean citizens at the airport immigration checkpoint), the system wouldn’t accept my ID card number. The agent I was dealing with was at a loss to explain why.

On Friday, I tried again at a different place. There, I learned what the problem was. From the beginning of January, KT began to upgrade its system to better accommodate accepting foreign customers. Until the upgrade is complete, no foreigners can get an iPhone, regardless of their eligibility. The current projected date of completion is February 1.

This is good news. The other telecoms upgraded long ago, but KT has been a stubborn holdout. And given the tone of a KT rep in an article I read just a week ago, it seemed the massive number of complaints they’d received from foreigners wasn’t having any effect on their policy. I’m hoping that this upgrade indicates they are relaxing their requirements like SK and LGT did years ago.

Two weeks without my iPod so far. I suppose I can hang on for three more!

There’s an article up at the Joognang Daily that describes the difficulties foreigners have in getting an iPhone in Korea. The release of the device here has highlighted KT’s abhorrent policies more than any other product. In most cases, foreigners I know with cell phones registered in their name (myself included) opt for SK or LG. Since the big reform a few years back, they have been sensible about their attitude toward foreigners. KT has not. And in this case, KT is the only choice for an iPhone. This article shows the problem well, which is really summed up in the last line:

[A KT official] emphasized, however, that the regulations regarding foreign customers are not particularly strict compared to other countries.

That’s probably true when comparing with countries in which foreigners can’t get cell phones at all. But, come on. How can you tell someone your regulations “aren’t particularly strict” while denying them service?

In my case, at least, it seems I qualify under KT’s current policy since I have an F-5 visa, something I was confident of but hadn’t actually inquired about yet. So, barring no ridiculous issues, I’ll try to pick one up later this week. I really don’t want to give my money to a backwards company like KT until they change their policies, but my desire for an iPhone trumps my moral principles this time.

It seems 2009 was, for me, the Year of Lost Devices. In early August, I lost my 8-month-old cell phone. In October, I threw my two-year-old iPod Classic in the washing machine. I still have the cell phone that I bought to replace the lost one, thankfully. But to close out 2009 on a low note, the iPod Touch that I bought in October is no longer in my possession. I managed to lose it when out with some friends a couple of nights ago. The frustrating thing is that I remember clearly where I left it. It was gone, of course, when I went back to get it. Farewell, my iPod Touch. I hardly knew ye.

So, in looking for a bright side, I’m seeing this as a good time to get an iPhone 3Gs. They are considerably more expensive here in Korea than they are in the States, coming in three price levels depending on how much free data transfer you want for internet service (1GB, 2GB, or 3GB). I’m also not sure if both the 16GB and 32GB models are available. I may need to reconsider if the 16GB is my only option. I had already surpassed 16GB on the iPod, and deciding what to cut out won’t be easy. There’s also the problem of dealing with KTF, the most foreigner-unfriendly mobile carrier in Korea.

Anyway, if I do decide to get it, I’ll give my current phone to my brother-in-law and let him take over payments on it. Those payments still include the price of the phone I lost, so I’ll need to pay it off the remainder so he doesn’t have to (both phones were just shy of $1000 US, and I was paying for them on 24-month plans as part of my monthly phone bill). So I’ll look into this next week. My only concern is that I’ve heard that the batteries drain very quickly. Given how often I listen to music when I’m commuting between classes, that’s not a good thing.