Mobile Phone Data Usage Surpasses '600,000TB'

Significant Increase in Data Usage Due to COVID-19 Impact

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] Due to the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), mobile phone data usage exceeded 600,000TB (terabytes, 1TB=1024GB) last March. Both 4th generation (4G) Long Term Evolution (LTE) and 5th generation (5G) mobile communications recorded their highest data usage ever in March.

Mobile Phone Usage '620,000TB'

According to the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 3rd, wireless data traffic (usage) for mobile phones in March this year reached an all-time high of 620,333TB.

Data usage increased for both 5G and 4G LTE. 5G recorded 152,729TB, an increase of 20,672TB compared to the previous month. This is the first month since September last year that data usage exceeded 20,000TB in a single month. Data usage per subscriber also surpassed 26GB at 27,229MB after two months.

For 4G LTE as well, both total usage and usage per subscriber increased significantly. In particular, despite a decrease in the number of 4G LTE subscribers due to the release of 5G smartphones, data usage actually expanded.

Total usage was recorded at 152,729TB, about 33,690TB more than the previous month. This is the first time in a year that the monthly usage increase exceeded 30,000TB. Usage per subscriber also exceeded 10GB for the first time ever.

Traffic Increase Due to COVID-19 Impact

The sharp increase in mobile phone data usage in March is analyzed to be a result of responses to COVID-19.

Since the crisis level was raised to "serious" at the end of February due to COVID-19, various government policies to prevent the spread of COVID-19 were implemented starting in March. These include the postponement of elementary, middle, and high school openings and work-from-home measures by the four major conglomerates. As a result, mobile phone data usage increased significantly. In addition to online video platforms like Netflix, usage of the internet and social networking services (SNS) also increased greatly.

An official from the telecommunications industry stated, "Due to temporary movement restrictions caused by COVID-19, data traffic has significantly increased," adding, "We are taking thorough measures to prevent any emergencies caused by the sudden surge in data usage."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.