May 5 SKT Daily Briefing: "One Million USIM Card Replacements"
USIM Protection Service Enrollment Expected to Be Completed by May 14
SK Telecom, which is currently dealing with the aftermath of a hacking incident, projected on May 5 that it would be able to complete the replacement process for 7.7 million reserved USIM card exchanges by the middle of next month.
A consumer is looking at a notice about USIM stock depletion and USIM protection service in front of an SK Telecom agency. Photo by Yonhap News
Kim Heesub, Head of PR Center; Ryu Junghwan, Head of Network Infrastructure Center; and Lim Bongho, Head of MNO Business Division at SKT, held a briefing at the press room in Euljiro, Seoul, on this day.
As of 9 a.m. that day, a cumulative total of 22.18 million people had completed registration for the USIM protection service, and the number of USIM card replacements had reached 1 million.
Lim stated, "There are 7.7 million subscribers who have reserved USIM card replacements, and we plan to prepare 10 million units by the end of June," adding, "We expect that the replacement process can be completed in about one and a half months from now."
Currently, between 200,000 and 300,000 replacements are being processed daily, including at airports, so it is expected that all reserved USIM replacements can be completed by the middle of next month. However, an SKT representative noted, "There is a possibility that new applicants for USIM replacement may emerge in the meantime."
In addition, SKT projected that by May 14, all domestic and international SKT subscribers would be enrolled in the USIM protection service.
The eligible population for the USIM protection service is 23 million SKT subscribers and 2 million MVNO subscribers using SKT lines, totaling 25 million people.
The daily number of new USIM protection service subscribers was 2.72 million on May 3 and 2.55 million on May 4, consistently exceeding 2 million per day.
Kim explained, "Currently, if subscribers who are overseas or enrolled in a roaming plan are automatically registered for the USIM protection service, their roaming plan will be terminated, which may cause inconvenience."
'USIM Protection Service 2.0', which will allow subscribers who are overseas or using roaming plans to simultaneously enroll in the USIM protection service, is scheduled to launch on May 14.
During the Q&A session, when asked whether subscribers themselves are responsible for proving damage in order to receive compensation, Kim responded, "We cannot immediately provide compensation just because someone says, 'I have suffered damage, so please give me 1 million won.' There must be a verification process to confirm that damage has occurred."
He added, "After reporting to the police and going through the investigation process, if the damage is proven, there will be parts that we need to verify, and at least some parts that customers need to verify as well. We cannot promise to handle everything just because someone calls us."
Meanwhile, starting from this day, all 2,600 T World agencies and the T World Direct Shop online channel have suspended new subscriptions and number portability services. In the case of retailers that handle all three mobile carriers, business can continue using their own stock of USIM cards.
Lim explained, "The reason for suspending new subscriptions at T World stores is to focus the limited supply of USIM cards on the replacement process," adding, "We have blocked new subscriptions at the system level."
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