Subscribed lines for mobile phones in South Korea is expected to surpass 60 million in first half of this year. Increased number of lines for IoT80 such as remote control, wearable and others along with MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator)144 phones that are showing steady increase in number of members are contributing in achieving that number.
According to MSIP’s (Ministry of Science, ICP and Future Planning) ‘Current Situation of Members of Wireless Telecommunication Service in March’, there were 59,528,546 lines of mobile phone service at the end of March excluding Wibro166, TRS (Trunked Radio Service), and wireless calling.
This number surpassed 59 million for the first time in January of this year after recording 58,935,081 at the end of last year. As this number increases by 200,000 to 300,000 every month, it might be able to surpass 60 million by this month at the earliest or surely by next month. MNVO phones (about 100,000 lines per month) are mostly leading increase number of phones lines according to saturation of cellphone markets, and the fact that number of lines for other uses is also increasing at a same rate sticks out.
Lines for IoT80 are also added to use of lines of mobile phones as well as cellphones (phones from 3 mobile telecommunication businesses and MVNO144). It is calculated that there are total of 4,523,195 IoT lines from vehicle control, remote control, wireless payment, tablet PC, wearable, and other IoTs. This value is equal to 8.37% of number of entire mobile phones.
Number of lines for IoT did not even come close to 3.5 million by end of 2014. This indicates that number of IoT lines increased by more than 1 million within a year. Out of all IoT lines, wearable showed the most rapid increase rate. As number of Smart Watches that uses telecommunication network increased, number of lines that was only about 50,000 by end of 2014 rapidly increased to 468,000 by March of this year.
Remote control takes up most of lines and 1,844,903 remote control lines use subscribed lines of mobile phones. As telecommunication technologies are developed, IoT service and infrastructure are rapidly expanding towards each field of societies such as surveillance of factories or facilities, remote reading and others.
There were also 807,826 and 621,067 lines for vehicle control and wireless payments respectively. Vehicle control indicates location-based service that is based on telecommunication network or telematics. There is an increased number of services that inspect current state of a car or provide driving information by using telecommunication network such as Hyundai Motor Company’s BlueLink.
“Because South Korea’s cellphone market is in saturation state, mobile telecommunication businesses are looking for new source of profits and providing telecommunication service to vehicles is one of them.” said a representative for a telecommunication business. “Although there are many functions such as providing driving information and others, telecommunication services will expand based on entertainment functions that increase convenience and happiness of drivers.”
Lines that use IoT80 for wireless payment service (621,067) are also increasing little by little. There are 556,367 tablet PC lines that use telecommunication network, and KT out of all mobile telecommunication businesses is providing most of lines at about 300,000.
On the other hand, number of subscribed members of mobile phones per subscription type in March was calculated to be 2,130,383 where there were 701,143 cases, 596,627 cases, 832,613 cases for new membership, change in numbers, and change in devices respectively. After decreasing for 4 months straight, this number surpassed 2 million again due to increased members according to release of Galaxy S7 in March. Number of changes in numbers increased slightly while number of changes in devices increased by more than 100,000.
Staff Reporter An, Hochun | hcan@etnews.com