SKT Holds Daily Briefing on May 5
All Subscribers Expected to Be Enrolled by May 14
"New Subscription System Blocked"
As of the morning of May 5, approximately 22.18 million people had subscribed to SK Telecom's USIM Protection Service, and the number of subscribers who had completed the replacement of their physical USIM cards reached 1 million. In addition, from this day, new subscriptions and number portability services at more than 2,600 T World retail stores nationwide have been suspended.
Travelers are lining up at the SK Telecom Roaming Center to replace their SIM cards. Photo by Yonhap News
Kim Heesub, Head of PR Center at SKT, Ryu Junghwan, Head of Network Infrastructure Center, and Lim Bongho, Head of MNO Business Division, held a briefing at the press room in Euljiro, Seoul, on this day.
Kim stated that as of 9 a.m. on this day, a cumulative total of 22.18 million people had completed their subscription to the USIM Protection Service, and the number of people who had replaced their USIM cards had reached 1 million. Compared to 9 a.m. the previous day, the number of USIM Protection Service subscribers increased by 2.27 million, and the number of USIM card replacements rose by 38,000.
The eligible subscribers for the USIM Protection Service include 23 million SKT subscribers and 2 million subscribers of budget phones using SKT lines, totaling 25 million people. SKT expects that all SKT subscribers will be enrolled in the USIM Protection Service within the next 14 days.
Kim explained, "Currently, if subscribers who are overseas or have subscribed to a roaming plan are automatically enrolled in the USIM Protection Service, their roaming plans will be terminated, which may cause inconvenience."
'USIM Protection Service 2.0,' which will allow overseas subscribers and roaming plan users to simultaneously enroll in the USIM Protection Service, is scheduled to be implemented starting May 14.
Ryu addressed concerns in the 'Fact Check' section regarding the risk of USIM card cloning when a phone is rebooted or turned off due to battery depletion, stating, "The USIM Protection Service and FDS can provide protection against such risks."
He further explained, "Once you subscribe to the USIM Protection Service, inserting another USIM card into your device will not work," and added, "A core function of FDS is its logic that provides protection when the phone is turned off."
Ryu elaborated, "The USIM Protection Service essentially bonds the user's USIM card to their device. This USIM card will not work with any device other than this one."
Meanwhile, from this day, all new subscriptions and number portability services have been suspended at more than 2,600 T World retail stores and the T World Direct Shop online channel.
Lim explained, "The reason for suspending new subscriptions at T World stores is to focus the limited supply of USIM cards on replacement tasks," and added, "We have blocked new subscriptions at the system level."
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