Korea`s mobile phone subscription rate tops 93 percent

SEOUL, Jan. 27 (Yonhap) -- More than nine out of 10 people in South Korea, known
as one of the world's most wired nations, owned a mobile phone as of last year,
the country's telecommunications governing body said Tuesday.
According to the Korea Communications Commission, there were 45.6 million cell
phone users in Korea at the end of last year, up by 2.1 million from 2007.
Considering the nation's population of 48.62 million, 93 percent of Koreans use
cell phones, while every Korean household has an average of 2.73 mobile phones,
it noted.
SK Telecom, the country's leading telecom service provider, secured a market
share of 50.5 percent, or 23 million users, followed by KTF with 31.5 percent, or
14.4 million users, and LG Telecom with 18 percent, or 8.21 million owners,
according to the government data.
In contrast, fixed-line telephone users decreased to 22.1 million people last
year, falling by 1 million from the year before.
KT Corp., South Korea's largest telephony services provider, had 19.9 million
subscribers, or 89.8 percent of the market, and SK Broadband's subscribers
decreased from over 2 million to 1.9 million, the commission said.
"In the aftermath of the economic recession, the growth in mobile phone users is
expected to slow sharply this year," said an official from the commission. "The
fixed-line service providers may continue to lose their clients to the Internet
telephone market."
Meanwhile, a mobile research company, Research On Asia (ROA), said that South
Korea's mobile phone market in 2009 will be cut down by 10 percent, selling only
21 million handsets, due to the global economic downturn.
brk@yna.co.kr
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