History of Telecommunications in South Korea

July 23, 2025

Telecommunications in South Korea have had a long and dynamic path conditioned by the rich and turbulent history of this small country located in East Asia in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula.

It directly borders North Korea and, through territorial waters, Japan and China.

In South Korea, the production of computers, semiconductors, radios, televisions, telecommunications and household appliances is largely based on Japanese and American licenses.

Currently, South Korea is the world’s largest producer of semiconductors. And the three largest economic powers of Asia want to expand their economic relations and – despite political distrust (consequences of past wars and disputes) are ready to negotiate a free trade agreement.

The heads of state and government of South Korea, China and Japan met in May 2024 to discuss strengthening economic cooperation and ensuring that the Korean Peninsula is free from nuclear weapons. It is significant that China, which is considered the closest ally of the communist regime in Pyongyang (formerly Pyongyang), has also declared its opposition to North Korea’s nuclear program. All three countries have spoken out for a political solution and cooperation in the areas of sustainable development, health care, science and technology, and disaster management. People-to-people exchanges are also to be expanded.

Militarily, both Tokyo and Seoul are under the US umbrella, while China is rapidly expanding its military presence in the Pacific, demonstrating hegemonistic ambitions by forming an alliance with Russia.

Japan and South Korea have good reasons to engage in high-level talks with China. China is South Korea’s most important trading partner and Japan’s second-largest trading partner. The two countries must balance these economic ties with their security interests.

Japan and South Korea are said to be raising the issue of China’s role in dealing with both Russia and the North Korean regime, and will press Beijing to play a more constructive role in resolving security crises, says Japan expert Maslow.

The network operator in South Korea is SK Broadband, formerly known as Hanaro Telecom. The company is headquartered in Seoul and is a wholly owned subsidiary of SK Telecom.

By 2008, Hanaro controlled nearly half of the Korean landline market, as it was the only competing local exchange operator (CLEC) other than state-owned KTCorp.SK Broadband, which also has a division known as “Broad &” that controls a significant portion of the South Korean phone card market.

In October 2000, SK Telecom became the second operator in the world after NTT DoCoMo to launch a commercial 3G service using W-CDMA technology, offering significantly increased data transmission speeds to existing 2G networks.

In 2005, SK Telecom sold 60% of SKTeletech shares to mobile phone manufacturer Pantech. This allowed it to better compete with Samsung and LG Elektronica in the mobile phone market.

It is worth mentioning the previous communication successes in South Korea.

Founded on March 29, 1984 as Korea Mobile Telecommunications Services Corp., the state-owned operator introduced pagers and car phones to the Korean market. In May 1984, it launched car phone service. Korea Mobile changed its name to Korea Mobile TelecommunicationsCorp. (KMTC) in May 1988.

The AMS cellular network was initially launched in the Seoul metropolitan area. By 1991, nationwide coverage was completed. In April 1993, the South Korean government through KMTC adopted CDMA as the national cellular telephone system. With privatization in June 1994, SK Group became the largest shareholder of Korea Mobile Telecommunications Corp.

In March 1997, to reflect the new changes, KMTC changed its name to SK Telecom, and in October, the NetsGo Internet service was launched. In June 1998, SK Telink, the international calling services division, began offering commercial overseas calling services.

In December 1998, SK Teletech introduced its first telephone. In April 1999, SK Telecom entered the Mongolian market by co-founding Skytel LLC with almost 30 percent ownership.

TTL, a wireless plan aimed at younger users, and inOP, a mobile Internet service, were launched in July and October 1999, respectively. In December, SKTelecom passed the ten million subscriber mark, and the following month it launched the world’s first commercial CDM00 service. By the end of the year, the operator had won a contract for the asynchronous IMT-2000 (WCDMA) service.CDMA).

The new millennium ushered in the era of cross-platform Internet networks, with efforts being made to integrate mobile services as SK Telecom began to explore new value creation models such as m-Commerce and satellite DMB service.

In January 2002, the acquisition of Shinsegi Telecomm Inc. was completed. That same month, the company deployed the world’s first commercial synchronous IMT-2000 installation.
In March 2002, the operator entered into international roaming agreements between countries using CDMA and GSM networks. In April, an agreement was signed with Israeli company Pele-Phone to sell proprietary software that will run on the operator’s existing CDMA network and future 1x-CDMA network.

In July, a memorandum of understanding was signed with China Union to establish a joint venture. In November, two mobile applications, “June” and “Moneta”, were launched. In July 2003, S-Fone, a commercial CDMA network, was launched in Vietnam. In August 2003, June became the world’s first 3G service to reach one million subscribers. In March 2004, Hanbyul, the world’s first DMB satellite, was launched.

In November 2004, Mel-On, an online music store, was launched, followed by “1mm” and “Lovienow”, a digital photo frame service. By December 2005, MelOn had four million subscribers.

In 2017, SK Telecom released the world’s first commercial HSDPA phone. In May, the operator also entered the U.S. wireless market with Helio. In June, SK Telecom signed a strategic partnership with China Unicom to buy CB into its subsidiary, China Unicom Hong Kong. That same month, SK rolled out its WiBro internet network. In April 2007, it signed a project with the Chinese government to create TD-SCDMA, the Chinese equivalent of 3G broadband internet. At the time, S-Fone had two million subscribers in Vietnam.

In 2013, SK Telecom was the first operator in the world to offer a commercial LTE-Advanced network under the brand name bandLTE. This coincided with the release of the Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE-A model, which offered a higher-powered processor (Snapdragon 8000) compared to the Snapdragon 600 used in the regular model, as well as LTE-Advanced features. SK Telecom supported the phone at launch. In July 2013, it was reported that Apple was in talks with SK Telecom to release the iPhone 5s on the company’s LTE Advanced network.

On December 17, 2018, SK Telecom introduced the “baro” roaming plan, which offers unlimited international voice calls while roaming.

Since June 2019, “baro” has attracted 2.2 million customers and 38 million total calls (with 800,000 total voice call hours). It also won the “Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough in Asia” award at the Asia Mobile Awards 2019, held as part of MWC19 in Shanghai. In June 2019, SK Telecom announced the launch of the world’s first 5G roaming service in partnership with Swisscom.

In October 2020, SK Telecom partnered with Uber Technologies with plans to spin off its mobility business into a subsidiary called T Map Mobility.

In November 2021, SK Telecom was spun off into a new company focused on investments, semiconductors and ICT, SK Square.

As of August 2020, SK Telecom supports 2G IS-95 /CDMA 2000,3G WCDMA / HSPA+, 4G Mobile WiMAX, LTE and 5G networks.

The 2G network supports CDMA (IS-95 A/B, CDMA2000, and EV-DO. EV-DO phones are marked with the “June” service name. The 3G network supports WCDMA, HSPA+. SK Telecom has the best HSPA+ coverage in South Korea. HSPA+ is available in over 50 major cities and towns, while KT HSPA+ is available in select metropolitan areas. 3.9G LTE, which uses both Band 5 and Band 3, supports multi-carrier technology, which SK Telecom claims is the first operator to offer.

From May 2005 to September 2012, SK Telecom provided S-DMB service through its subsidiary TU Media, later TU Media, later SK Telink. The S-DMB service was discontinued in September 2012. In 2022, SK Telecom announced a partnership with Joby Aviation with the aim of establishing a flying taxi line in the South Korean market by 2025.

In 2005, SK Telecom announced that it had formed a joint venture with Earthlink to create a new American mobile operator called SK-Earthlink, later renamed Helio. Merged with Earthlink, Helio designed a variety of advanced mobile devices, many of which were already available in Korea. These models were to be improved and updated for use by technology-savvy American consumers, enabling for the first time phones with features that were not previously available in the American market.

In October 2014, SK Broadband unveiled the world’s first 10 Gbps internet service at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Plenary Conference. The new internet service is 100 times faster than existing LAN services in South Korea, which provide download speeds of 100 Mbps.

Since 2000, Hanaro has participated in the joint marketing program of Cisco Powered Network and network service providers, which offers public services over a network powered by Cisco Systems equipment.

Hanaro Telecom and Korea Thrunet shared about 45 percent of the broadband market. To strengthen its position, in March 2005, Hanaro acquired its second-largest rival, Korea Thrunet.

In 2006, SK Telecom became the first non-Chinese company to participate in the TD-SCDMA project. Under the agreement, SK Telecom will work with China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) to develop TD-SCDMA, China’s equivalent of the 3G Internet standard.

In 2006, SK Telecom collaborated on joint acquisition of mobile phones, development of additional services, development of platform, marketing and distribution, customer relationship management and network development. One of the results of this cooperation is the joint development of mobile phones to be acquired by Samsung, LG and Motorola.

In February 2008, Hanaro Telecom was acquired by local wireless giant SKTelecom. The new name, SK Broadband, was adopted in September 2008.

In 2015, SK Telecom acquired all shares of SK Broadband in a share swap transaction, and SKBroadband became a wholly owned subsidiary of SK Telecom.

SK Telecom is putting efforts into expanding into global markets such as Vietnam, the US, China and the Philippines. The company is also forming strategic alliances with other global operators and IT companies.

In November 2015, SK Telecom agreed to acquire a 30% stake in rival CJ Hello Vision, a deal that made SK Broadband the second-largest paid cable broadcaster in South Korea.

Akamai, a research service on network development, published a report for 2015, in which South Korea came first in terms of internet speed. The State of the Internet is an annual report informing about the state of the internet and forecasts for its further development. The top ten are Korea and Japan, usually associated with technological progress and the pursuit of rapid development of the global network. In addition, Korea cannot afford poor ping in Starcraft, so the continuous, rapid development of infrastructure in the southern part of the peninsula is not at all shocking. The same applies to Scandinavian countries, which are famous for widely available, decent connections provided by state operators.

About 49 million South Koreans, or 97% of the population, use the internet. The country, as mentioned, has the fastest average internet connection speed in the world. South Korea has consistently ranked first in the UN Development Index since the Index was launched. The government has set policies and programs that have facilitated the rapid expansion and use of broadband internet, in South Korea. 97.6% of the population owns a smartphone, the highest rate in the world. Seoul is called the world’s bandwidth capital.

The first internet message sent from South Korea was sent by Hyunje Park in 1990, writing an email – “I am Hyunje Park from Korea. Anyone who sees this email, please reply.” …and it came back… “I am Torben from the University of Hawaii, United States. Congratulations. You are now connected to the Internet.”

As of July 25, 2024, South Korea had the 6th fastest mobile internet and 31st fastest broadband speeds, at 139 Mbps and 150 Mbps, respectively. Becoming the sixth operator in the world to reach ten million subscriptions, it also began building a Northeast Asian CDMA belt spanning China, Japan, Vietnam, and the rest of the Asian continent.

SK Telecom also offers online entertainment, business and financial services on multiple platforms: the aforementioned Mel-On allows users to download or stream music over the Internet. Music can be played on mobile phones, digital audio players, portable media players and digital cameras. Users can create their own ringtones. m-Finance is an online banking system, introduced in 2001, that allows users to manage financial transactions. Properly equipped mobile phones allow basic banking operations, such as bank transfers and checking balances, as well as stock trading and credit card services. Users can also withdraw cash from ATMs using their phones.

Another service is Digital Home, which allows you to remotely control and monitor home appliances, lighting, security systems, and fire alarms. Importantly, this service uses high-speed internet, telephone, and cable networks to achieve functionality.

Mobile RFID (m-RFID) are phones with built-in RF readers that can provide users with key product information before making a purchase.

SK Telecom tested the technology in six use cases, including security, authentication, shipment tracking, supply chain management, digital content consumption and location-based services.

In September 2021, SK Broadband sued U.S. pay-TV service Netflix, demanding payment for increased network and bandwidth costs that it blames on popular shows like Squid Game. SK Broadband claims that Netflix’s traffic on the ISP’s network increased exponentially by about 24-fold, from 50 gigabits per second in May 2018 to 1,200 gigabits in September 2021. The lawsuit is another chapter in an ongoing legal debate in South Korea over whether platforms like Netflix should pay for bandwidth usage. In the previous lawsuit, the company’s legal representative argued that the service’s mission is to create and deliver content, not to provide access to the network for internet users. A SK Broadband spokesman emphasized that Amazon, Facebook and Apple pay fees to use the Korean internet. YouTube and Netflix do not.

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