Korean Mobile Subscriber Growth (2005-2010)

ASIA : According to the new research report by ROA Group the number of mobile users in South Korea will reach 41.95 million by 2010, which is 85% of the total population in South Korea. In the report titled Korean Mobile Market Forecast and Carrier Strategy 2006-2010, Full Year 2006, ROA Group forecasts that solid growth for WCDMA (3G) is expected in the near future and the number of users is expected to increase to 23.05 million by 2010. CDMA EV-DO subscribers recorded 15.3 million in 2006 but the number of users is expected to decrease in the future. The prepaid market remains low in South Korea and will not increase remarkably, to account only 1% of the market by 2010. The market share of data services will grow to obtain 25.2% out of the total sales of the industry, says Haneui Lim, a consultant at ROA Group.

The solid growth is driven by the introduction of new handsets, a variety in mobile contents, aggressive marketing and attractive price plans. WCDMA, WiBro and DMB are wide spreading in the South Korean market, enabling such services as telematics, home network and mobile RFID. The two leading mobile carriers, SKT and KTF are strengthening their presence also in the global markets. SKT launched Helio, an MVNO service in the U.S. with Earthlink in May 2006 and KTF is cooperating with NTT DoCoMo, the leading mobile carrier in Japan. LGT, the third player in the market has been concentrating on offering low-priced voice communications services and innovative value added services in the domestic market.