CDMA Services

Every Korean cellular phone is provided with CDMA (code-division multiple access) since 1993. This enables numerous simultaneous calls in the cities. This is essential as almost all citizens of Korea have mobile phones. Mobile phone users totaled over 40 million as of the end of November 2006. This is 82.2% of the entire Korean population, which is 48,500,000

Portable Internet Services

Once you have purchased your mobile phone from one of the three major telephone companies, you can use the Internet through your cellular phone (not available on card phones). Of course it costs, but there¡¯s also a promotion program for these services. If you use the portable Internet service (SK for Nate, for example), you will pay a fee per certain amount of data (kb), plus additional charges for the time you spend connected the Internet.

How to get a mobile phone

In most cases, you need your Alien Registration Card, your passport, and a credit card of the bank account which you opened in Korea. Some companies sometimes require foreigners to have a Korean guarantor.

What kind of service?

While traveling for a short period of time you can use mobile phone rental services. It is required that you pay a rental fee and a refundable deposit along with the actual phone charge. There is no minimum amount for the phone charge, and since it is in the form of a prepaid card, there is no need to get a bill later. The phone charge gets deducted from the prepaid card when a call is finished, and users can buy another card or recharge their cards when they have used up the full amount of the prepaid cards. Users should pay attention to the validation period of the prepaid card because a card cannot be used after the validation period has passed.

This is usually possible with most mobile phone dealers. You will have to pay the monthly charge, along with a sign-up fee when you first sign up for the service. The usual cost per month is 30,000 - 50,000 Won. Most dealers prefer that you pay this fee in cash.