[Galaxy Note II General] veletron:
Unfortunately not. I believe that South Korean LTE is on 1800MHz. Post auction UK LTE frequencies are 800MHz and 2600MHz (these are the bands to be auctioned off before the end of 2012). However, it will likely work on EE's Interim LTE network.

Everything Everywhere will launch an 'interim 4G' solution, running LTE on some of its unused 1800MHz spectrum (from the T-Mobile/Orange Merger). This will be rolled out to 16 cities before the end of the year. EE 4G is up and running as we speak, but only for dongles, and one cannot yet buy a phone on contract from them.

Aside from that, O2 and Vodafone have lots of spectrum at 900MHz, depending on what they secure at 800MHz, they might ask ofcom to allow them to run LTE on 900MHz, likely siting ofcoms agreement to allow EE to run LTE on 1800MHz as ammunition!

Three (which only had 2100MHz spectrum since its a 3G only provider), has bought some 1800MHz spectrum off EE. They have not yet declared what they will use this for, but one would suspect limited 'interim 4G' like EE.

There are basically no phones out there at the moment that support both post-auction UK LTE frequencies (800MHz and 2600MHz). France apparently uses 800MHz and 2600MHz although only the latter is currently live. There is a note 2 variant on its way that does 800/2600MHz. Lots more will follow.

The problem we have in the UK, is that we might end up with 4 LTE bands: 800MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz and 2600MHz !!! No phones are going to be doing all this lot anytime soon. (I was wrong: Nokia Lumnia 920 does, Samsungs do not yet)

Additionally, what happens post-auction to EE's (and perhaps 3's) LTE network at 1800MHz - are they just going to shut it down (one would assume not!) If not then future phones for that network will need to do 800,1800 and 2600MHz. Will they cover the initial 16 cities with 800/2600MHz as well as 1800MHz to keep the early adopters happy?

UK LTE is a mess. Its partially DSO (TV digital switchover) that's to blame, but ofcom could have sold off the 2600MHz spectrum some time ago, and then done the 800MHz auctions after DSO. This is the way that France chose to run its auctions. If ofcom had done this then we could have had 4G 12-18 months ago, and we could not have ended up with half-way-house 1800MHz LTE from the likes of EE.

Anyway to answer your question, if you get any of EE's current phones: iPhone5, SGS3, Lumnia 920, (and, if they announce it, Note 2 - Korean) etc then these ONLY do 1800MHz LTE EE's 'Interim LTE' (and perhaps 700 and 2100MHz LTE - which are useless in UK). Early next year, EE will start to spread coverage outwith those initial 16 cities, but they will do this using the 800MHz and 2600MHz LTE they won at auction.

That phone you got from them wont work on these post-auction LTE frequencies. You'll likely be on a two year contract, paying dearly for the fact that you adopted LTE early since those that waited would enjoy much better LTE coverage from their later-generation phones. On top of that, your phone, not having the right radio's for UK LTE will be worth sweet FA on ebay!

The operator arguments over the 800 and 2600MHz bands have hardly started yet. If O2/Voda get permission to run LTE on their 900MHz spectrum (and are also allowed to bit on 800MHz), you can bet you house that the operators without 900MHz aint gonna be happy!

What really gets me regarding all the arguments, is that neither O2, vodafone nor (to a lesser extent) orange ever bothered to implement 3G properly. It works in cities, thats about it. Only Three and T-Mobile actually implemented a reasonable 3G network that covered most of the UK.

Personally, I would forget about LTE for 18 months until there is a viable network, and some viable hardware that is actually able to take advantage of all the LTE infrastructure no matter what frequency is happens to run on! I certainly would not be signing up with EE (or three if they do 1800MHz LTE) for 2 years, just to be the first - as there's good potential to get caught out 9-12 months down the line.

For the operators, there are other issues at 800MHz. Folk living close to base stations are likely to loose the freeview muxes that are sat in the low 800MHz. In simple cases, this is fixed by a filter, in other cases, it will require a new roof antenna, while for some other folks, it will require a switch from freeview-freesat. One of the conditions attached to the 800MHz spectrum is that the mobile operator needs to fix-up the TV signal's for any customer that is likely to be effected. This will also reduce the radiation patterns, and thus range of the base stations in certain directions. Ofcom will only allow switch-on of the BS once the MO has fixed up all potential TV reception issues. Its going to cost them a fortune!

NB: What what I have seen thus far, Galaxy S3 and Note 2 don't do 1800,800 & 2600 in the same device. BUT Nokia Lumnia 920 does.

Nigel