South Korea's ICT Ministry said Wednesday mobile virtual network operators accounted for more than 10 percent of the local mobile market as of November, amid the booming popularity of budget handsets in the country.
  

According to the data compiled by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, the number of users subscribing to MVNO's service plans came to 5.84 million as of end-November, taking up 10.1 percent of the country's 57.78 million subscribers of mobile networks.
  

MVNOs refer to mobile service providers that rent networks from the country's three carriers: SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp.
  

As they save on network operation costs, MVNOs usually provide users with plans cheaper than those of the major carriers, thus being referred to as "thrift phone operators" in South Korea.
  

In line with its efforts to ease the burden on households amid the economic slump, the South Korean government has been promoting sales of budget smartphones sold by MVNOs. The country's first MVNO service was launched in July 2011.
  

There are 38 MVNOs in operation in the country, with KT's network accounting for 46.7 percent, trailed by SK Telecom with 45.5 percent and LG Uplus with 7.8 percent.
  

The ministry said the rise in the portion of MVNO subscribers is significant as the average revenue per user of such service providers stand at 16,026 won ($13.6), far lower than the ARPU of 36,481 won held by the existing three mobile carriers.
 

 South Korea's MVNO operators saw their sales reach 490.8 billion won over the January-September period of 2015, hovering above the 455.5 billion won posted for the entire 2014, the ministry added.
 

 While the companies are expected to post an operating loss of 59.6 billion won, it will mark an improvement of an operating loss of 96.5 billion won posted for 2014, it also said. (Yonhap)