SEOUL, KOREA - KT’s market share fell below 30 percent last month, first in decades, affected by the government’s business suspension order. Accordingly, the market share structure for the telecom industry which has been fixed at a ratio of 50:30:20 among SK Telecom, KT, and LG U+ since 2002, has finally buckled.
On April 24, the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning released its estimates on the number of wireless subscribers as of the end of March.SK Telecom grabbed the largest market share of 50.42 percent, followed by KT with 29.86 percent, and LG U+ with 19.72 percent.
Compared to a month ago, this can be interpreted that SK Telecom improved, LG U+ performed well, and KT performed poor.This is the first time for KT’s market share to fall below the 30-percent level in ten years.
KT’s poor performance is attributable to the business suspensions ordered by the government. Korea’s telecom watchdog recently ordered business suspensions for the nation’s three major telecom companies for their provision of illegal smartphone subsidies to attract new customers.
The businesses of KT and LG U+ were suspended earlier than SK Telecom. Unlike LG U+ which divided its business suspension period into two parts, KT was suspended for 45 consecutive days and, accordingly, its March performance was hit harder than others.