SK Telecom plans to resume new sales through eSIM starting from the 16th.
Resumption is expected shortly after the 20th, when the free replacement of physical SIM cards is anticipated to be completed.
According to the telecommunications industry on the 15th, SK Telecom will partially resume sales starting with eSIM, which does not require consideration of physical inventory.
New sales will begin from the morning of the 16th at 2,600 T World stores nationwide, where new sales had been suspended.
Unlike a physical SIM that is inserted into a device, an eSIM is a subscriber identification module embedded in smartphones.
On April 18, a cyber breach incident occurred at SK Telecom, resulting in the leak of SIM-related information.
In response, SK Telecom decided to provide free replacements of SIM cards for customers wishing to change their cards; however, a shortage of SIM card inventory resulted in insufficient replacements.
To address this, the Ministry of Science and ICT issued administrative guidance to SK Telecom on the 1st of last month, mandating a complete suspension of recruiting new mobile telecommunications subscribers and number transfers from other telecom companies until the SIM card shortage was resolved.
The Ministry of Science and ICT has indicated that new sales can resume once the replacement of SIM cards for customers wishing to change their cards is completed. Accordingly, SK Telecom has been reporting the status of SIM replacements and inventory levels to the Ministry daily while discussing the timing for resuming sales.
The timing of the completion of SIM replacements also seems to have influenced the decision to partially resume operations.
SK Telecom anticipates being able to accommodate most of the reservations for free SIM replacements on the 20th.
In the second week of this month, 1.9 million SIM cards are scheduled to arrive, followed by 1.6 million in the third week, totaling 3.5 million over the two weeks, which significantly exceeds the remaining 1.83 million reservations as of the previous day.
Thus, it is expected that sufficient replacements can be processed for customers who reserve replacements later or for 'no-show' customers who do not complete their replacements within a week, allowing new sales through SIM cards to resume shortly after the completion on the 20th.
An SK Telecom official noted, "We plan to focus on completing replacements rather than new sales to avoid inconveniencing those who have reserved replacement SIM cards."