January KT 24.0%, LGU+ 19.4%... End of the 'Mobile Phone 2nd Place Debate'

The Ministry of Science and ICT disclosed the wireless communication service statistics as of January this year on the 15th.

According to the released data, as of January, SK Telecom's mobile phone lines were counted at 22,952,612 lines (40.8%), KT had 13,489,926 lines (24.0%), and LG Uplus had 10,931,883 lines (19.4%). KT took second place.

On the other hand, in terms of Internet of Things (IoT) lines, LG Uplus ranked first among the three major carriers with 7,155,839 lines (29.7%). During the same period, MVNOs followed with 7,075,467 lines (29.4%), SK Telecom had 6,981,266 lines (29.0%), and KT had 2,885,355 lines (12.0%).

Mobile phone lines were clearly ranked SK Telecom-KT-LG Uplus, while IoT lines were ranked LG Uplus-SK Telecom-KT. Unlike before, the government categorized the mobile communication line status into three groups for aggregation: mobile phones and subscriber-based terminal devices, and IoT communications.

Last November, a controversy arose over the second-largest operator between KT and LG Uplus. The Ministry of Science and ICT announced the wireless communication service subscription status as of September of the same year in November last year, showing that LG Uplus surpassed KT to take second place in total mobile communication lines.

LG Uplus overtaking KT, which ranked third, was largely influenced by the number of IoT lines. KT still claimed second place in mobile phone lines excluding IoT lines, and the government mentioned in November last year that "from the statistics as of January next year, the aggregation method will be changed."

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