[Yonhap Photo]
SEOUL -- In a country which is not accustomed to leasing phones, South Korea's top mobile carrier SK Telecom launched a new service in a joint project with Australia's financial service provider Macquarie to rent new smartphones such as Apple's iPhone X and Samsung's Galaxy S9 for about $4.8 a month.
South Korea, with about 51.7 million people, has about 39.3 million smartphone users, according to Statistica, a New York-based market research company, but because many are engaged in mobile plans with a 24-month minimum mandatory subscription period, smartphone leasing was not popular.
Smartphone leasing services are popular in countries like Britain, the United States and Canada as they normally require a 12-month mandatory subscription period. The average lifespan or replacement cycle of a smartphone in South Korea is about 31 months.
SK Telecom said in a statement that it will start servicing "T Rental", a smartphone leasing plan, from June 1. The service requires a user to sign up for a 24-month subscription and return his or her phone when it is over. The user can choose to keep the phone by paying for its residual value or stop using it by paying for penalties. Rental fees and residual values of the leased smartphones will be priced by Macquarie.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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