South Korea's wireless data traffic almost doubled in January from a year earlier in line with explosive growth in the country's smartphone-using population, data showed Wednesday.

According to the data compiled by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, wireless data traffic totaled 58,262 terabytes in January, compared with 29,748 terabytes a year earlier. One terabyte equals 1,024 gigabytes.

The figure includes traffic on the third-generation network and WiFi offered by telecom operators.

The data comes amid rapid growth in the number of local smartphone subscribers. South Korea's smartphone population topped the 30 million mark in August last year.

Also, the sharp increase in wireless data traffic was boosted by a surge in the number of smartphone users who opted to connect their smartphones to the faster mobile network, called long-term evolution (LTE).

The country's LTE subscriber base topped the 20-million mark early this month in just 20 months after the service was introduced in the country.

The portion of traffic on the LTE network also increased sharply as mobile carriers introduced LTE pay plans and handset makers released LTE models, according to the data.

LTE traffic accounted for 52.1 percent of total wireless traffic in January, a whopping increase from 9.54 percent a year earlier.

The corresponding figure for February was even higher, coming in at 56.67 percent, according to the ministry. (Yonhap News)