science

Mobile phone industry in South Korea

Mobile phone industry in South Korea is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mobile phone industry in South Korea rather than just read about it. In short: The mobile phone industry in South Korea consists of the provision of domestic network infrastructure and the production of consumer mobile handsets. History Car phone era In 1984, Korea Mobile Telecommunications Service, a subsidiary of Korea Telecom that was later renamed to SK Telecom, started its mobile communications service with a car phone.

Key takeaways

Mobile phone industry in South Korea belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mobile phone industry in South Korea to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mobile phone industry in South Korea from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The mobile phone industry in South Korea consists of the provision of domestic network infrastructure and the production of consumer mobile handsets.

History

Car phone era In 1984, Korea Mobile Telecommunications Service, a subsidiary of Korea Telecom that was later renamed to SK Telecom, started its mobile communications service with a car phone.

Mobile phone era

Consumer devices

Network and service developments 1988: Korea Mobile Telecommunications Service started South Korea's first mobile phone service. 1996: Korea Mobile Telecommunications Service started the world's first cdmaOne service in Incheon. The same year, Korea Telecom Freetel (KTF), a subsidiary of Korea Telecom, began its service. 1997: Korea Mobile Telecommunications Service was sold to SK Group and changed its name to SK Telecom. The same year, LG Telecom launched its business. 2002: Korea Telecom Freetel merged with Internet companies invested by Samsung Group and became KTF.

Smartphone era

Consumer devices In 2009, KT was the first network to introduce the iPhone to South Korea. The origins of South Korea's domestic smartphone production industry can be traced back to Samsung's release of their first smartphone, a reaction to Apple's iPhone, which was well-received by the South Korean population. Later, as the smartphone sector continued to grow, South Korea's LG Electronics also joined the competition. Unlike Apple and Samsung, LG's business strategy was to make more affordable devices rather than devices with higher specifications. Eventually, LG shifted to offering phones with a better camera and higher screen quality, which increased their cost of goods. The sales of their phones, however, did not improve. LG announced its decision to exit the smartphone market in April 2021 due to their continued net loss in this sector. Until now, Apple and Samsung have held the largest market shares, with LG trailing behind. Apple tried to capitalize on LG's exit of the smartphone market by advertising its products on LG's displays within markets. Samsung also took this opportunity to offer existing LG customers competitive deals on new Samsung phones, such as running trade-in events for used LG smartphones. Competition between the two manufacturers in the South Korean market is still on-going.

Network and service developments 2009: KTF merged with Korea Telecom. 2010: LG Telecom, LG Dacom, LG Powercom were merged into LG U Plus. 2012: KT shut down its 2G services and migrated to a 3G network. 2020: SKT shut down its 2G services and migrated to newer generation networks. New technology was developed such as WiBro and LTE

Handsets

Domestic production Current South Korean producers of mobile phones include:

Samsung Electronics KT Tech Former South Korean producers of mobile phones include:

Pantech Curitel - ceased production in 2017 LG Electronics - ceased production in 2021

Market share (domestic and imported handsets) Samsung and Apple have the largest market shares in Korea.

Mobile phone service providers

There are three mobile phone service providers and they are currently deploying their 5G networks.

Korea Telecom (KT) absorbed KT Freetel (KTF) in 2002 and offers services using HSPA and LTE networks. LG U Plus (LG U+), a member of LG Group, also provides CDMA2000 and LTE networks. SK Telecom (SKT) of SK Group also offers services using HSPA and LTE networks. In 2020 the CDMA2000 network was shut down. As of 2004 the market shares of the three companies were believed to be: SK Telecom with 50 percent of the market, Korea Telecom with 30 percent and LG Telecom with 20 percent.

Official bodies and technical partnerships The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) is the telecommunications authority. The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) supports Qualcomm's research and development of CDMA and CDMA2000 technology. Regarding the Korean mobile phone industry's overseas experiences, SK Telecom has helped the first mobile phone service companies in Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Cambodia, etc. In China, it helped China Unicom's CDMA implementation, both technically and financially.

See also Telecommunications in South Korea List of telephone operating companies List of mobile network operators List of mobile phone makers Culture of South Korea: Cellular Phones

References

External links Korea Telecom official site (Korean & English) LG U Plus official site(Korean & English) SK Telecom official site (Korean & English)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mobile phone industry in South Korea

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mobile phone industry in South Korea claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mobile phone industry in South Korea before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mobile phone industry in South Korea ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mobile phone industry in South Korea

In research: Mobile phone industry in South Korea appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mobile phone industry in South Korea in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mobile phone industry in South Korea is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Mobile phone industry by country, Telecommunications in South Korea, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mobile phone industry in South Korea outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mobile phone industry in South Korea in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mobile phone industry in South Korea means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mobile phone industry in South Korea out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mobile phone industry in South Korea in simple terms?

The mobile phone industry in South Korea consists of the provision of domestic network infrastructure and the production of consumer mobile handsets. History Car phone era In 1984, Korea Mobile Telecommunications Service, a subsidiary of Korea Telecom that was later renamed to SK Telecom, started i…

Why does Mobile phone industry in South Korea matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mobile phone industry in South Korea?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mobile phone industry in South Korea.