BOSTON--Samsung announced a new WiBro phone this week that will be part of Korea Telecom's demonstration of the technology at the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Corporation IT summit and exhibition in Busan, Korea.

The APEC IT event, part of the year-long APEC summit activities, will be an important demonstration venue for WiBro, according to Hung Song, vice president of the global marketing group at Samsung, because the event will be attended by leaders of 21 countries who have an influence on spectrum availability in their countries, as well as their influence with their respective citizens.

KT's demonstration at the summit will include 10 WiBro base station and 11 repeaters, focusing on a demonstration of mobile hand-off capabilities, said Jong-Seog Koh, vice president of the network planning department at KT's Mobile Internet Business Group. The carrier is planning to launch WiBro commercially in Seoul by next April, offering applications such as MMS, mobile gaming, pusth-type services and IP multi-casting, among others. The carrier is investing $1 billion in WiBro over the next five years.