Number of mobile subscribers switching carriers nears record

Mobile Number Portability in South Korea still ran high over the past weekend as local mobile carriers lured subscribers with new pay plans and lower prices, industry sources said Tuesday.

According to the sources, the country’s three mobile carriers ― SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. ― received a total of 105,035 MNP applications during the May 4-6 period, nearing an all-time high of 116,055 MNP applications seen late last month.

The figure translates into around 35,000 mobile telephone users changing from one mobile network to another while retaining their mobile telephone numbers.

The country’s telecom regulators regard some 24,000 MNP cases a day as a sign that the market is in “overheated competition.”

The sources said the still high MNP is attributed to local mobile operators offering new pay plans that prod mobile phone users to switch to pay plans that fit their needs. Also, mobile handset makers cut prices of some of their devices to woo mobile

phone holders into upgrading their gadgets, they said.

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest smartphone maker, rolled out the Galaxy S4, the latest of its flagship Galaxy smartphone line-up, in South Korea last month.

Also, its local smaller rivals ― LG Electronics Inc. and Pantech Co. ― released their latest smartphones, including Pantech’s Vega Iron.

In March, the Korea Communications Commission, the country’s telecom regulator, imposed a combined 5.3 billion won ($4.73 million) penalty on the three mobile carriers for doling out excessive subsidies to smartphone users. (Yonhap News)