Is the world ready for "3G for All?" LG Electronics thinks it is, as the world's fourth largest handset maker (having been just recently surpassed by Flickr-lover Sony Ericsson) scored a major coup at 3GSM last week when it was announced that one of LG's handsets will lead the GSM Association's "3G for All" campaign to make sure everyone and anyone knows that 3G is alive and well and that they should subscribe. Now. Anyway, the LG model KU250 will end up being sold for about 30% less wholesale than the typical entry-level 3G phone. The meat from LG here is that this handset, even at the lower entry price, will be very competitive with the multimedia second-generation handsets selling now. The KU250's dimensions at 15mm thick will have support from 12 global wireless carriers at the outset and was chosen from 19 handsets submitted by eight vendors. For pure GSM fans, it may be a little of a mixed bag, as the GSM Association chose a handset with a chipset supplied by Qualcomm. Hey, we're all part of the WCDMA burgeoning family, right?

As the saying goes, "You snooze, you lose." Such is the case for LG Telecom, Korea's 3rd-largest carrier behind SK Telecom and KTF, which purchased a license to deploy 3G services on the 2GHz band in 2001 for 1.15 trillion won ($1.2 billion, give or take), but has yet to do anything with said license. According to the terms of the license agreement, the services had to be in place by the end of last month, and an advisory board has subsequently given the thumbs-up to Korea's Ministry of Information and Communication to yoink the license. LG Telecom's CEO, Nam Yong, has said that deploying 3G at 2GHz would be counter to market trends and they'd like to upgrade their 1.8GHz network instead, but it appears the heart-of-stone MIC is going ahead with the revocation nonetheless. And here's the real kicker: Korean law stipulates that any company failing to make good on a 3G rollout remove its chief executive. Oh, but don't you worry about Mr. Nam; rumor has it he'll likely land comfortably somewhere within LGT's corporate parent -- you guessed it -- LG Electronics.