South Korea - Mobile Infrastructure, Broadband, Operators - Statistics and Analyses

Synopsis

South Korea’s mobile market has slow growth over the last few years due to a highly mature market. Organic growth by the three main mobile operators, together with the multitude of niche MVNOs will result in further growth to 2017 however growth rates will taper off further over the next few years as the market further matures. By 2015 SK Telecom was the market leader followed KT and LG Telecom.

New investments are intended to drive revenue and gain market share and recent years has seen the launch of LTE and the rapid increase in smartphone adoption.

In mid 2015 South Korea’s Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) began preparing a series of measures to deregulate the nation's mobile market by facilitating the issue of a fourth mobile license. In late 2015 Ericsson and LG Uplus signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate on the development of 5G and (IoT) technologies.

This report provides an overview of the dynamic mobile market in South Korea and includes a summary of the mobile technologies, associated subscriber statistics down to operator level, and a number of mobile applications proving popular in the market. Mobile forecasts are included to 2021.

Key Developments:

LG Uplus demonstrated faster mobile broadband speeds using technology termed as LTE in Unlicensed spectrum (LTE-U).
In 2015 KT Corp constructed a new mobile network service ‘Giga LTE’ service utilises both LTE and Wi-Fi technologies to offer a peak speed of 1.17Gbps.
Ericsson and LG Uplus signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate on the development of 5G and (IoT) technologies.
SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus’ launched the world’s first commercial interconnected VoLTE service.
LG Uplus introduced a new technology designed to boost telecom quality in network blind spots, called ‘Cloud Digital Unit’ (‘CDU’).

Companies covered in this report include:

KT; LG U+; SK Telecom.

1. Synopsis
2. Market Overview and Analysis
3. Background of South Korea’s mobile market
4. Mobile statistics
- 4.1 General statistics
  - 4.1.1 Mobile subscribers by operator
  - 4.1.2 Mobile ARPU by operator
  - 4.1.3 Smartphones
- 4.2 Mobile data
- 4.3 Forecasts
  - 4.3.1 Notes on scenario forecasts
5. Regulatory issues
- 5.1 Licensing
- 5.2 Spectrum
  - 5.2.1 Spectrum auctions: 1.2GHz, 1.8GHz and 800MHz
  - 5.2.2 Additional spectrum allocation
6. Mobile infrastructure
- 6.1 Digital networks
  - 6.1.1 Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
  - 6.1.2 Wideband CDMA (WCDMA)
  - 6.1.3 LTE
  - 6.1.4 LTE-Advanced (LTE-A)
  - 6.1.5 5G
- 6.2 Other infrastructure developments
  - 6.2.1 VoLTE
7. Major mobile operators
- 7.1 KT Corp
- 7.2 SK Telecom
  - 7.2.1 Overview
  - 7.2.2 Next Generation Growth Strategy
  - 7.2.3 SK Planet
- 7.3 LG U+
- 7.4 MVNOs
8. Mobile content and applications
- 8.1 m-commerce
  - 8.1.1 App-based m-payment
9. Related reports

Table 1 – Mobile subscribers – 2006 - 2015
Table 2 – Mobile subscribers (historical) – 1985 - 2005
Table 3 – Mobile subscribers by operator – 2002 - 2015
Table 4 – Mobile operator market share – 2002 - 2016
Table 5 – Mobile Service ARPU per month by operator – 2009 - 2015
Table 6 – Smart phone subscribers and market share (historical) – 2009 - 2012
Table 7 – Forecast smart phone and tablet PC subscribers and market share – 2010 – 2015
Table 8 – Monthly Traffic volume per phone type – 2012 - 2014
Table 9 – Forecast mobile subscribers and penetration rates – 2016; 2018; 2021
Table 10 – CDMA mobile subscribers by operator (historical) – 2002 - 2013
Table 11 – WCDMA subscribers by operator (historical) – 2013
Table 12 – LTE mobile subscribers by operator – 2011 – 2014
Table 13 – KT Corp’s mobile and 3G subscribers and total market share – 2004 - 2015
Table 14 – KT’s Voice and data ARPU – 2004 – 2015
Table 15 – SK Telecom revenue, net profit, capex, EBITDA margin – 2005 - 2015
Table 16 – SK Telecom mobile and 3G subscribers, ARPU – 2002 - 2015
Table 17 – SK Telecom smartphone subscribers and penetration – 2009 - 2015
Table 18 – Monthly LTE usage per subscriber – 2012 - 2015
Table 19 –LG U+ revenue, net income, EBITDA – 2009 – 2015
Table 20 –LG U+ revenue breakdown by service – 2009 – 2014
Table 21 – LG U+ capex – 2009 – 2015
Table 22 – LG U+ - total mobile ARPU – 2009 - 2015
Table 23 – LG Telecom mobile subscribers, ARPU – 2003 - 2015
Table 24 – LG Telecom smartphone subscribers and penetration – 2011 – 2014
Table 25 – MVNO subscribers by operator – 2012 - 2014
Table 26 – M-commerce transaction value – 2012 - 2015
Table 27 – Payment Gateway transaction value – 2012 - 2015

Chart 1 – South Korea mobile subscriber growth, population penetration – 2006 - 2015
Chart 2 – Operator total market share – 2015

Exhibit 2 – SK Telecom at a glance
Exhibit 3 – LG U+ at a glance

Related Reports

Focus Report Profile

Technologies

Companies (Major Players)
Mobile & Wireless Broadband and Media
Mobile Communications (voice and infrastructure)
Regulations & Government Policies
Strategies & Analyses (Industry & Markets)
Telecoms Infrastructure

Number of pages 19

Status Current

Last updated 1 Mar 2016
Update History

Analyst: Phil Harpur

Purchase this Report

US$290.00

Licence Information

Share this Report

Purchase with Confidence

Paul has been a consistent champion of improving broadband in Australia, and is most deserving of the industry's ongoing support.

B Beckor, Callpoint, Australia

Special Offers

Bahrain - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband
US$215.00 until 5 Oct 2016
(normal price US$435.00)

Iran - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband
US$210.00 until 5 Oct 2016
(normal price US$420.00)

Sample Reports

A selection of downloadable samples from our Annual Publications catalogue.

Download a Sample Report

More than 4,000 customers from 140 countries utilise BuddeComm Research

Are you interested in BuddeComm's Consulting Services?

View Reports by

Hot Topics

News & Views

Have the latest telecommunications industry news delivered to your inbox by subscribing to Paul's FREE weekly News & Views.

Contact us

Email
pbc@budde.com.au