SK Telecom, Korea’s biggest mobile carrier, said Sunday that it has officially launched its new multicarrier service as of midnight, July 1.

This marks the first time for a telecom company anywhere to offer such a service, which uses two frequencies of 800 MHz and 1.8 GHz for Long Term Evolution smartphones.

It allows 4G consumers to experience less mobile traffic in locations such as Gangnam in southern Seoul where people using mobile devices are densely populated.

The telecom giant launched a test version of its multicarrier LTE service last May with the technology first embedded in Pantech’s Vega Racer 2.

Consumers who own Samsung Electronics’ new Galaxy S3 LTE smartphones will also be able to enjoy faster connectivity via SK Telecom’s multicarrier networks.

SK Telecom said that it will expand the service in six provinces in Korea by the end of this year, and aims to offer it in 23 major cities by early next year.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)