More than 10,000 subscribers left KT on the first day it implemented a waiver of early termination fees. Some expect that this weekend could trigger large-scale number portability.

According to the telecom industry on the 1st, 10,142 subscribers terminated their contracts with KT the previous day. Of these, 5,784 moved to SK Telecom, and 1,880 moved to LG Uplus. 2,478 chose MVNOs.

The KT hacking incident, which began about three months ago amid a string of unauthorized small payments, had been expected to have a smaller impact than the SK Telecom case. This is because at SK Telecom, SIM information for all customers was leaked, whereas at KT the number of affected customers was limited.

However, once it was confirmed that eavesdropping was possible via illegal micro base stations (femtocells), the KT incident began to be reassessed. The scale of malware infection on KT servers (84 servers, 103 types of code) also exceeds the SK Telecom hacking case (28 servers, 33 types of code).

An industry official said, “As awareness of the KT fee waiver spreads and the year-end and New Year period passes, daily cancellations could expand into the tens of thousands,” adding, “A number portability upheaval could occur.”

The Public-Private Joint Investigation Team at the Ministry of Science and ICT released findings on the 29th of last month stating that it “constitutes grounds for a fee waiver for all customers” in relation to overall security failures at KT. The following day, KT held a press briefing and said it would waive the fee by refund for customers who cancel contracts through the 13th. The waiver will also be applied retroactively to customers who already canceled on or after September 1.