"2.63 Million Users Reserve Online SIM Card Replacement"
According to SKT, as of 6 p.m. on the same day, 230,000 users had completed their SIM card replacements, while 2.63 million users had made reservations for SIM card replacement online.
SKT discovered on April 18 that some information related to users’ SIM cards had been leaked due to malware. Although the company subsequently advised customers to sign up for the SIM Protection Service, user concerns persisted. In response, SKT started offering free SIM card replacements from April 28.
On the first day, SKT’s stores nationwide saw long lines of subscribers seeking to replace their SIM cards, and the online reservation system set up by SKT was overwhelmed by the surge in demand for SIM card replacement reservations.
SKT urged users to sign up for the SIM Protection Service, which provides the same level of protection as a SIM card replacement until users are able to replace their SIM cards through the online reservation system. As a result, the number of users who had subscribed to the SIM Protection Service surged to 7.41 million as of 6 p.m. on April 28.
In total, the number of users who had either completed or reserved a SIM card replacement, or subscribed to the SIM Protection Service, reached 10.27 million. This figure represents 41% of the 25 million total users, which includes 23 million SKT subscribers and 1.87 million MVNO subscribers using the SKT network.
SKT currently has a stock of about 1 million SIM cards. The company stated, “We plan to secure an additional 5 million SIM cards by the end of May,” and added, “We will continue to secure more SIM cards according to customer demand.” However, due to the large number of subscribers, it is expected to take several months for all users wishing to replace their SIM cards to complete the process.
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