South Korea's telecoms service market to remain stagnant through 2017

The market for South Korean telecom service, which includes mobile phones, fixed-line telephones and broadband Internet, is expected to remain stagnant through 2017 due to a slowed growth in fixed-line and mobile networks, an industry report said Thursday. The Korean affiliate of research house International Data Corp. forecast that the country's telecom service market will reach 30.24 trillion won (US$26.55 billion) by 2017, almost flat from last year's 30.12 trillion won. The country's telecom service market has been fueled by increases in sales of wireless Internet products such as text messaging and Internet surfing through mobile phones. South Korea is also leading the world in the use of broadband Internet and high-speed mobile phone technologies. But revenues from fixed-line and wireless telecom services are unlikely to show a sharp growth down the road as conventional telephones and broadband Internet operators grapple with a saturation of the markets, according to the report. Also, the country's mobile carriers have been stepping up efforts to woo more customers into their high-speed mobile network, called long-term evolution (LTE), but the market is also facing a stalemate in growth, the report said.