SK Telecom said on Thursday that the number of its long term evolution network subscribers has exceeded 3 million as of early this month since launching the 4G telecommunication service in July last year.

Within 11 months, Korea’s biggest mobile carrier has surpassed Japan’s NTT DoCoMo to become the world’s second leading LTE provider after U.S.-based Verizon, it said based on data by Wireless Intelligence.

There were 72 companies that provided LTE services in 37 countries as of May, the company noted. SK Telecom was the world’s 22nd company to launch LTE in July 2011, and secured over 1 million users by January this year.

Currently, some 70 percent of SK Telecom’s customers use LTE. The company also has established LTE networks for key infrastructure such as subways, bullet trains and highways in 84 cities. It plans to boost its networks to districts, towns and suburbs in the countryside this month.

Also, the telecom giant plans to launch multicarrier network services, backed by SK Telecom’s two frequencies of 800MHz and 1.8 GHz, to help users experience reduced online traffic congestion, beginning in July.

Meanwhile, KT, Korea’s second biggest mobile carrier, said that it was able to secure 1 million LTE subscribers in five months since it launched the 4G service in January this year, the shortest period for so many users in the world.

The company, which has been promoting its LTE Warp service using Star Wars character Darth Vader, noted that it had 1,100 subscribers on average per day since it established nationwide LTE networks in April.

Its LTE Warp received an award for the best communication common carrier at the LTE World Summit last month.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)