South Korea: Investments in 5G, IoT and GiGA Internet to Drive Future Telecom Growth

Summary The South Korean Telecom market is one of the most advanced telecom markets globally. Overall telecom services revenue is expected to reach US$53.9bn at the end of 2020. Mobile data will contribute nearly three-fourths of the overall telecom revenue, driven by increased adoption of LTE services and ongoing investments and research activities currently underway for 5G deployment and launch. Operators are focusing more on data-centric plans with unlimited data usage limits, mainly through bundled services offerings. The advancement in the underlying technology will enable operators to offer converged services at relatively lower prices. Competition in the telecom market is stable with the presence of three major players but will likely intensify in the near future owing to the regulator's plan to introduce a fourth operator into the market. The KCC intends to auction spectrum in the 700MHz band during the second half of 2015, which will enable existing operators to become ready for 5G introduction, besides equipping them to offer superior quality broadband services. Key Findings - South Korea is the third largest telecom services market in the Asia-Pacific region, after Japan and China, with estimated revenue of US$44.8bn, or 3.1% of nominal GDP in 2015. - Pyramid Research expects telecom service revenue to reach $53.8bn in 2020 (a 3.7% CAGR), as price competition will remain intense and the adoption of fixed/mobile convergent services will increase pressure on total market revenue. - The revenue mix will continue to be dominated by mobile services due to ongoing investments in 5G and the advancement of LTE technology by all three operators (SK Telecom, KT and LG U+) in the coming years. Fixed and mobile data revenue will account for 59% of total revenue in 2020, up from 50.2% in 2015. - The top two operators - SK Telecom and KT (including its pay-TV subsidiary SkyLife), which provides mobile, broadband, TV and fixed voice services - will together account for 74% of overall service revenue in 2015. All operators are focusing on investments, network modernization and multiplay offerings to compete in a challenging environment. Synopsis “South Korea: Investments in 5G and GiGA Internet to Drive Future Telecom Growth” provides an executive-level overview of the telecommunications market in South Korea today, with detailed forecasts of key indicators up to 2020. It delivers deep quantitative and qualitative insight into South Korea's telecom market, analyzing key trends, evaluating near-term opportunities and assessing risk factors, based on proprietary data from Pyramid Research's databases. The Country Intelligence Report provides in-depth analysis of the following: - Regional context: telecom market size and trends in South Korea compared with other countries in the region. - Economic, demographic and political context in South Korea. - The regulatory environment and trends: a review of the regulatory setting and agenda for the next 18-24 months as well as relevant developments pertaining to spectrum licensing, national broadband plans, number portability and more. - A demand profile: analysis as well as historical figures and forecasts of service revenue from the fixed telephony, broadband, mobile voice, mobile data. - Service evolution: a look at changes in the breakdown of overall revenue between the fixed and mobile sectors and between voice, data and video from 2013 to 2020. - The competitive landscape: an examination of key trends in competition and in the performance, revenue market shares and expected moves of service providers over the next 18-24 months. - In-depth sector analysis of fixed telephony, broadband, mobile voice and mobile data services: a quantitative analysis of service adoption trends by network technology and by operator, as well as of average revenue per line/subscription and service revenue through the end of the forecast period. - Main opportunities: this section details the near-term opportunities for operators, vendors and investors in South Korea's telecommunications markets. Reasons To Buy - Gain in-depth analysis of current strategies and future trends of South Korea's telecommunications market, service providers and key opportunities in a concise format, to build proactive and profitable growth strategies. - Understand the factors behind ongoing and upcoming trends in South Korea's mobile communications, fixed telephony and broadband markets, including the evolution of service provider market shares, to align product offerings and strategies to meet customers' demand. - Leverage the graphical information (more than 20 charts and tables in the report based on the Pyramid Research forecast products) to gain an overview of the South Korean telecom market. - Analysis of key telecom players in the markets and major business strategies being adopted by them, to identify the opportunities to improve the market share. - Explore novel opportunities to align your product strategies and offerings to meet the requirements and succeed in the challenging telecommunications market in South Korea.