No. of 4G LTE subscribers in Korea breaks 4 mln mark

The number of subscribers to the 4G mobile telecommunications service, dubbed long term evolution, or LTE, has exceeded four million in 10 months since its launch in July last year.

According to SK Telecom on Tuesday, it had nearly 2.09 million LTE subscribers as of Monday. LG U+ was second with 1.71 million. KT, the latest contestant in the LTE market, did not disclose its figure but estimates put it at around 400,000.

The rapid growth in the number of LTE users in less than one year is attributable to the completion of nationwide 4G networks. LG officially announced late last month and SK early this month that they had established nationwide LTE networks. KT is also soon expected to follow suit.

The expansion of LTE networks to provincial cities and many islands caused a surge in the number of subscribers in areas outside of Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. SK Telecom said that following the setup of nationwide networks, the number of new subscribers to LTE service in the provinces jumped more than 40 percent from the previous month.

Though telecom service providers do not offer unlimited data packages, their variety of services at relatively low prices also helped attract new subscribers. LG Telecom introduced a policy of allowing subscribers to use twice as much data transmission at the same price charged by rival companies, and will begin “Voice over LTE” service in the second half of this year. LTE networks now are used only for data transmission.

With competition among service providers heating up, they have introduced for more frugal subscribers a limited data service that terminates access to data transmission after a predetermined limit is reached. A variety of tariff policies designed for use patterns by age group is also offered.

SK aims to secure six million LTE subscribers by year`s end, while LG eyes four million. If KT joins the fray after completing the establishment of its nationwide 4G network, the competition to attract new subscribers will likely grow white hot.

Industry experts say the winners and losers in the competition will likely be determined by the amount of content usable on LTE handsets.

“There were 400,000 downloads this month in the T Premium Service, which allows users to enjoy the latest movies and dramas on LTE networks,” an SK source said. “Services offering large capacity video content had a great impact on increasing the number of subscribers.”

Other service providers are also talking to content providers on beefing up LTE content such as videos and games.

baltika7@donga.com