South Korea - Key Statistics, Infrastructure, Regulatory Overview and Forecasts

Synopsis

South Korea has one of the world’s most active telecommunications and Information Technology (IT) markets backed by strong support from the government. As well as the commitment of the government, the sector is boosted by an innovative private sector and a technologically savvy population. Spending on ICT and high-technology equipment helped lead a transformation of the economy. The government aims to transform the country into a knowledge-based information society in a ‘smart-age’. This report provides an overview of the South Korean telecoms market, including key statistics and infrastructure investments. Forecasts for fixed-line subscribers are included to 2016.

Key Developments:

Increasing share of the ICT industry contribution to GDP; increasing mobile penetration rates to over 105%; continuing decline in fixed-line voice subscriptions and revenue as VoIP gains in popularity; 1st in world rankings for Government Broadband Index 2011 and Broadband Quality 2008 to 2010; the emergence of a National Strategy for Green IT; government promotion of new industry creation into 2018 such as 4G broadcasts and 3D and Smart television; government intervention on tariffs in a bid to fight inflation.

Companies covered in this report include:

KT; LG U+; SK Broadband; SK Telecom

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
• 2. Key statistics
• 3. Country Overview
  • 3.1 Background
  • 3.2 South Korea’s economy
• 4. Telecommunications market
  • 4.1 Government support
  • 4.2 ICT industry as an engine of economic growth
  • 4.3 Communication industry revenue by type
    • 4.3.1 Wireline communication service by sector
    • 4.3.2 Wireless communication service by sector
    • 4.3.3 Value added communication services
  • 4.4 Global rankings and South Korea
    • 4.4.1 ICT Development Index - ITU
    • 4.4.2 Digital Economy - EIU
    • 4.4.3 Government Broadband Index - EIU
    • 4.4.4 High-speed broadband ranking – Akamai Technologies
    • 4.4.5 Wireless high-speed internet penetration – OECD
    • 4.4.6 Global Innovation Index – INSEAD
    • 4.4.7 Broadband quality - Saïd Business School
  • 4.5 Digital Korea statistics – convergence
  • 4.6 Telecommunications service markets
    • 4.6.1 Service provider classification
    • 4.6.2 Licensing
• 5. Telecommunications market sectors
  • 5.1 Fixed-line and mobile services
    • 5.1.1 Fixed-line network
    • 5.1.2 Mobile network
  • 5.2 Broadband in South Korea
  • 5.3 Internet in South Korea
• 6. Forecasts
  • 6.1 Forecast fixed-line subscribers – 2011 - 2012; 2016
  • 6.2 Forecasting methodology
• 7. Regulatory environment – KCC
  • 7.1 KCC – Overview and responsibilities
  • 7.2 KCC structure
  • 7.3 KCC – related laws
  • 7.4 KCC – Background pre-2008
    • 7.4.1 Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC)
    • 7.4.2 Korea Broadcasting Commission (KBC)
• 8. National Internet Development Agency of Korea (NIDA)
• 9. Regulatory developments 2011
  • 9.1 Mobile tariff cuts
    • 9.1.1 SK Telecom cuts
  • 9.2 Spectrum auctions
    • 9.2.1 Spectrum auctions: 1.2GHz, 1.8GHz and 800MHz
  • 9.3 Real-name registration
  • 9.4 Mobile subsidies
  • 9.5 Freedom of expression restriction
  • 9.6 Limit on marketing spending
  • 9.7 Policy changes towards competition: Cross-media ownership
• 10. Regulatory environment
  • 10.1 Policy overview
  • 10.2 Deregulation background
  • 10.3 Ownership rules
• 11. Infrastructure investment sTRATEGIES
  • 11.1 Infrastructure investment overview
  • 11.2 Infrastructure investment stages of growth
    • 11.2.1 Korean Information Infrastructure (KII) project
    • 11.2.2 IT839 Strategy
    • 11.2.3 E-Korea Vision 2006
    • 11.2.4 Broadband Korea IT Vision 2007
    • 11.2.5 Ubiquitous Korea (u-Korea)
  • 11.3 Green IT in South Korea
  • 11.4 Top 10 ICT focus areas: 2010 - 2018
• 12. Related reports

• Table 1 – Country statistics South Korea – 2011
• Table 2 – Telecom revenue and investment statistics – 2009
• Table 3 – Telephone network statistics – April 2011
• Table 4 – Internet user statistics – December 2010
• Table 5 – Broadband statistics – March 2011
• Table 6 – Mobile statistics – April 2011
• Table 7 – National telecommunications authorities
• Table 8 – South Korea GDP and GDP per capita – 2000 - 2016
• Table 9 – Growth of ICT industry – 2003 - 2010
• Table 10 – Average growth rate per GDP and medium over 10 years from 2001 to 2010
• Table 11 – Telecommunications fixed-line, mobile, total revenue and investment – 2000 - 2009
• Table 12 – Wireline communication service revenue by sector – 2008 - 2011
• Table 13 – Wireless communication service revenue by sector – 2008 - 2011
• Table 14 – Value-added communication service revenue – 2008 - 2011
• Table 15 – Broadband ranking evolution top 10 countries – 2008 - 2010
• Table 16 – Fixed and mobile lines in service and teledensity – 1991 – 2012
• Table 17 – KT Corp’s fixed-line subscribers and market share – 2004 - 2011
• Table 18 – Telephony (PSTN + VoIP) subscribers and market share by operator – May 2011
• Table 19 –Telephone lines by operator (PSTN) – 2005 - 2011
• Table 20 –Telephone lines by operator (VoIP) – 2006 - 2011
• Table 21 – Broadband internet subscribers by operator – 2005 - 2011
• Table 22 – Broadband internet market share by operator – 2005 – 2011
• Table 23 – Forecast fixed-line subscribers and penetration - higher band: 2011 - 2012; 2016
• Table 24 – Forecast fixed-line subscribers and penetration - lower band: 2011 - 2012; 2016

• Chart 1: Telecommunications revenue breakdown – 2000 versus 2009
• Chart 2 – South Korea fixed-line and mobile subscribers – 2000 - 2012
• Chart 3 – PSTN and VoIP subscribers by major operators – 2006 - 2011
• Chart 4 – Broadband internet subscribers by operator – 2005 - 2011

• Exhibit 1 – Map of South Korea
• Exhibit 2 – Bits and bytes
• Exhibit 3 – Classification of service providers
• Exhibit 4 Proposed deregulation of media ownership
• Exhibit 5 – Foreign ownership restrictions
• Exhibit 6 – Informatisation policies and paradigms – 1998 - 2012
• Exhibit 7 – Informatisation Promotion: Execution body
• Exhibit 8 – Green IT promotion strategies of domestic companies