No 5G Market Share Overtake... '46:30:24' Fixed

Telecom 3 Companies Maintain Market Share Similar to LTE Era

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] The market shares of the three major domestic telecom companies have maintained a '46:30:24' ratio even in the 5G era, solidifying a structure similar to that during the LTE period. As the market landscape, which fluctuated in the early days of 5G, stabilized, each company's share converged to the existing ratio.

According to the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 7th, as of the end of August, the 5G market shares of the three telecom companies (excluding MVNOs) were SK Telecom 46.0%, KT 30.4%, and LG Uplus 23.6%, respectively. Compared to the previous month, SK Telecom rose by 0.4 percentage points, while KT and LG Uplus fell by 0.1 and 0.6 percentage points, respectively.

The 5G market has settled into the same structure as the telecom market, which has maintained around SK Telecom 46%, KT 30%, and LG Uplus 24% for several recent years. Right after the commercialization of 5G, at the end of April last year, KT took first place, showing a different pattern from before and raising expectations for changes in the market landscape. By the end of June that same year, LG Uplus increased its share to 29.0%, threatening KT's second place position.

However, starting this year, SK Telecom steadily increased its market share, leading all three companies back to their original 'positions.' The industry views that since the services of the three telecom companies are not significantly differentiated, many 5G subscribers tend to return to the telecom company they were previously subscribed to.

Because of this, some argue that the domestic telecom market still relies on subsidy-based marketing competition. Even in the 5G era, new services, content, pricing, and device competition have not been activated, causing the market share structure to become fixed and consumer welfare to decline.

A telecom industry official said, "Discount programs like family bundling seem to have the effect of keeping existing subscribers tied in," adding, "It can also be interpreted that there was no subscriber movement because the 5G services of the three telecom companies are not significantly different."

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