Telstra, the largest Australian mobile operator, has announced the release of a new LG handset to work on its fast Next G network: LG KF390. The phone will be offered in Australia only by Telstra and it was added to the carrier's Blue Tick family of devices. This means that it can be used in rural and remote areas without performance gaps when it comes to signal strength.

Talking about the new LG, Mr. Geoff Booth, Group Managing Director at Telstra Country Wide, said, "The LG KF390 is the first super-fast (7.2 HSDPA) handset to be given the Blue Tick, meaning the phone combines the benefits of the wider coverage and higher speeds available on the Next G network. Perhaps even more importantly, you can maximize your coverage with the LG KF390 by connecting it to an external antenna, either through a patch lead or via a directly-coupled car kit."

The KF390 was first presented by LG in June, during the CommunicAsia fair from Singapore. In terms of design, the handset doesn't really bring anything new, being a simple-looking slider.

The features of KF390 (besides quad-band GSM and dual-band HSDPA connectivity) include a touch-sensitive navigation pad, a 2 Megapixel camera, secondary video-call camera, a 2 inch TFT display with 262K colors, Media player, Bluetooth, expandable memory and so on.

Telstra says that LG KF390 will be on sale starting August 4, from select shops and dealers, coming with a retail price of 559 AUD (about 526 USD or 340 Euros). The new phone will also be available for purchase with a 30 AUD monthly plan, but only starting August 18.

Besides the upcoming LG KF390, Teltra's Blue Tick family of devices also includes Nokia N95, Sony Ericsson Z750i, Samsung A411 (only on prepaid), Samsung A412, LG TU500 (prepaid), LG TU550 and Telstra 165 (also known as the Telstra Country Phone).

There are no details about the release of LG KF390 in other countries, but it's worth mentioning that the handset might soon be launched in the US, since the FCC approved it a few months ago.