The number of South Koreans who use smartphones that run on the fourth-generation long-term evolution (LTE) network has exceeded the 10 million mark in over a year after its debut, industry sources said Friday.

According to the sources, the country‘s three mobile carriers reported a total of 10.12 million LTE subscribers as of Wednesday, meaning that one out of five South Koreans use LTE smartphones in the country with a population of 50 million.

Market leader SK Telecom had 4.84 million users, while LG Uplus had 3.28 million and No. 2 industry player KT held 2 million.

The figure exceeded the landmark level after the super-fast service was launched in July last year.

The pace of LTE subscription growth is faster than that of smartphones, as smartphone users topped the 10 million level in one year and four months after Apple Inc.’s iconic iPhone hit the country in November 2009.

Meanwhile, the total number of smartphone users in South Korea topped 30 million last week.

The three mobile carriers expect the number of LTE network users to reach 16 million by the end of the year.

The carriers are stepping up their drive to offer more advanced technologies and services, including so-called voice over LTE (VoLTE) services, to win over users in the heavily saturated market. (Yonhap News)