Telecom giants have begun accepting reservation purchases for Samsung Electronics’ much-awaited flagship smartphone Galaxy S3.

SK Telecom, Korea’s largest mobile carrier, said that it started promoting Samsung’s 3G and long-term evolution mobile handsets, taking pre-orders from 5,000 customers on a first-come, first-served basis on Tuesday morning.

After about two and a half hours, the telecom company said that pre-orders for all of the 5,000 3G phones had ended, while Samsung’s LTE phone continued to receive customer attention.

Customers began signing up for the smartphone, available in pebble blue and marble white, at SK Telecom’s official online retailer T-World Shop on Tuesday, as well as at the telecom company’s retail chain stores.

More than 70 percent of those who reserved the Galaxy S3 wanted to change or upgrade their existing smartphones, the company explained, noting that its customers continued to choose SK Telecom’s service, citing SK’s quality voice communication and data network systems as reasons.

KT also said that it began accepting pre-orders for Galaxy S3 LTE smartphones on Tuesday morning at its online and offline retail shops.

LG U-Plus, the third largest of Korea’s telecom companies, said it will accept pre-orders for Samsung’s LTE phones in July.

Samsung Electronics released its new phones in 28 markets in Europe and the Middle East in late May, and plans to introduce them in 145 more markets by July. Korea was one of its last destinations for the release of Galaxy 3S. The 3G phones will hit tech stores this weekend, while LTE phones will arrive next month.

Samsung has been touring worldwide to promote Galaxy S3, launching its first promotion in London where Samsung began introducing the white and blue smartphones with active-matrix organic light-emitting diode displays.

It noted the features of its Galaxy S3, running on Google’s Android platform, which include eye-tracking and direct calling functions. It also introduced “S-Voice,” allowing users to control and direct the mobile phones through voice communication systems such as raising the volume or asking questions.

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