Total Number of Mobile Number Portability Cases Reaches 930,000
Number of Customers Leaving SKT Quadruples Compared to Pre-Hacking Incident
Only About 30,000 Customers Moved to SKT... Impact of Agency Registration Suspension
In the aftermath of the SK Telecom (SKT) SIM (USIM) information hacking incident at the end of April, the total number of mobile number portability (MNP) cases last month approached 1 million. The number of SKT lines that switched to other mobile carriers last month reached approximately 440,000.
According to the telecommunications statistics system of the Korea Telecommunications Operators Association (KTOA) on the 2nd, the total number of MNP cases last month was 933,509. This figure represents an increase of about 35% compared to the previous month’s 690,954, and is nearly double the amount recorded in January this year (about 490,000).
On the 28th, customers waiting to replace their SIM cards visited an official SK Telecom certified agency in Mapo-gu, Seoul. SK Telecom plans to offer free SIM card replacement services to subscribers starting today. 2025.4.28. Photo by Kang Jinhyung
This is the first time in the past 10 years that the number of MNP cases has exceeded 900,000 in a single month. In the mobile telecommunications market, the monthly number of MNP cases has recently hovered around 500,000. The monthly average number of MNP cases last year was also about 520,000. In the early 2010s, the number of MNP cases exceeded 1 million per month, but after the enforcement of the Act on the Improvement of Distribution Structure of Mobile Communication Devices (the so-called "Device Distribution Act"), which restricted MNP subsidies, the figure dropped by half.
The sharp increase in MNP cases last month, after a period of stagnation, appears to be attributable to the SKT hacking incident. In addition to the incident in which all users’ SIM information was leaked, controversy over SKT’s subsequent response accelerated customer departures. Last month, the total number of SKT customers who switched to other carriers was tallied at 440,490. SKT departures accounted for half of all MNP cases.
Last month, 196,685 customers switched from SKT to KT, and 158,625 moved from SKT to LG Uplus. For both carriers, the number of customers coming from SKT more than doubled compared to the previous month. The number of SKT users who switched to MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) was 85,180, an increase compared to the monthly average of about 50,000 earlier this year.
The outflow of SKT customers stands out compared to the period before the SIM hacking incident. Since the beginning of this year, the number of SKT customers switching to other carriers was in the low 100,000s each month, but immediately after the SIM hacking incident in April, the number rose to 200,000, and then surged to around 400,000 in May.
Conversely, the number of customers who switched to SKT from other carriers last month was only 34,960, which is just one-fourth of the previous month’s 122,671. The number of subscribers who switched from KT, LG Uplus, and MVNO lines to SKT each remained in the low 10,000s. This appears to be the result of SKT suspending MNP registrations at its directly managed stores and official agencies in order to prioritize SIM card replacements for existing customers.
As criticism mounted over SKT using its SIM card inventory for new registrations and MNP while many existing customers were waiting for replacements, the company suspended new registrations at agencies. However, MNP and new registrations are still possible at retail stores that are not agencies. As customer departures accelerate and new registrations have been suspended, SKT is responding by increasing official subsidies and device upgrade support for the latest smartphone models.
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