[THE INVESTOR] The soaring sales of Samsung Electronics' newly-released Galaxy Note 7 smartphone are boosting South Korea’s telecom businesses as customers are subscribing to new network operators when purchasing the new smartphone.

According to the nation’s three major telecom operators SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus, a total of 57,904 subscription swaps — switching from one telecom operator to another — took place over the weekend since Galaxy Note 7’s local release last Friday.

Some 35,558 swaps occurred Friday, while another 22,346 swaps took place on Saturday, according to data provided by the three telecom companies. The figures were a sharp increase from the 12,299 subscription swaps that occurred on Thursday.


 

This suggests that the sudden rise in subscription switches was prompted by local customers receiving their pre-ordered Galaxy Note 7 devices from Friday.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is a large smartphone equipped with a curved display, an iris scanner and an upgraded stylus. It is available locally only in the 64-gigabyte version and in three colors -- blue coral, gold platinum and silver titanium.

Industry watchers expect that local demand for the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 will remain upbeat in the imminent weeks ahead, as there are many Korean customers who did not preorder the device but are interested in making a purchase.

However, the Galaxy Note 7’s popularity could decline when a number of competing premium smartphones — such as Apple’s iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, as well as LG Electronics’ LG V20 — are released next month, they said.

By Sohn Ji-young/The Korea Herald (jys@heraldcorp.com)