Special Exhibition

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The 30th Anniversary of the Korean Mobile Phone Connecting beyond generations
The 30th Anniversary of the Korean Mobile Phone

Connecting beyond generations

National Museum of Korean Contemporary History 1st Floor Exhibition Hall

July 9 (Mon) - July 31 (Tue), 2018

  • Price : Free
  • Hours :10:00 – 18:00
    Opening hours will be extended to nine o’clock in the evening on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
    (Last admission is one hour before the closing time.)
  • For additional inquiries call : +82-02-3703-9200

Opening Special Exhibition


July 1, 2018 marks the 30th anniversary of mobile phone communications in Korea. Since Korea Mobile Communications, the forerunner of SK Telecom, first introduced mobile phone service in Korea using AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone Service) technology on July 1, 1988, Korea was the first in the world to commercialize CDMA in 1996, the CDMA 2000 service in 2002, and LTE-A in 2013. Opening a new history of mobile communication, it has led an explosive growth of the mobile communication industry in Korea, which has evolved into a global IT powerhouse.

The number of mobile phone users, which was only 784 in the first year of service, exceeded 0.1 million in 1991 and reached 20 million in 1999. As of April 2018, the number of total mobile phone service subscriptions is now 64,600,627, exceeding the total population. In 1988, mobile phones, which were sold at a price equivalent to the key money for a house in some areas of Seoul, became an item of daily necessity for all.

This exhibition spotlights the evolution of mobile phone service in Korea and the changes in people’s lives that it has brought in each era: the era of 1G, which only allowed basic voice communication; the era of 2G, enabling the exchange of text messages; the era of 3G ushering in the era of video; and the era of 4G, where people can exchange a variety of multimedia content at a stable speed on their mobile phones. The exhibition also presents a future prospect for the era of 5G, where the scope of connection will be infinitely expanded to all “things”, such as self-driving cars or robots.

Exhibition Viewing Order
전시 관림 순서
Content Introduction
전시 콘텐츠 소개