Korean VoIP usage spikes after slow start

Just five and a half years since being introduced to Korea, VoIP telephone usage has passed the 10 million subscriber mark; more than one in three users of landline telephones use the Internet phone service.

Korea's Communications Commission says rates for VoIP calls between cities are 80 percent lower that calls on landlines; International calls are 95 percent less expensive, and even calls to mobile phones are cheaper by about 20 percent.

The KCC said it expects VoIP user number to pass 11 million this year.

"Internet telephony is now [the] Koreans' daily communications medium," the KCC said in a statement. "We will continue to offer various services to VoIP users to alleviate the burden of communications fees."

When VoIP first became available to Koreans in 2006, uptake was slow because it used a prefix--070--associated with telemarketing. That practice was abandoned in 2008, leading, said KCC, to a surge in VoIP adoption.

For more:
- read this Korea Joongang Daily article