KT and LG Uplus are working together to resolve the shortage of SIM card (USIM) stock related to the SK Telecom hacking incident.
According to the industry on the 30th, the Ministry of Science and ICT has proposed cooperation among the three mobile carriers and is in discussions to support SIM manufacturers in prioritizing the production of SK Telecom's stock. However, since the SIMs from the three carriers are not compatible, providing the stock held by KT and LG Uplus is difficult.
Currently, SK Telecom has about 1 million SIMs and plans to secure an additional 5 million by the end of next month. However, the number of subscribers, including 23 million and 1.87 million budget phone subscribers, reaches 25 million, leading to anticipated confusion due to the stock shortage. The monthly SIM order volume for mobile carriers is around 400,000, making it challenging to quickly increase the manufacturing scale.
Since the hacking incident occurred, the number of customers who have replaced their SIMs exceeds 700,000, including budget phone users using the SK Telecom network, with 138,000 customers replacing their SIMs in just one day. As of the 29th, a total of 705,000 customers had replaced their SIMs.