The number of people who switched their mobile carriers in the first six days of May reached just shy of 120,000, industry data showed Sunday.

The total who transferred to a new service provider in the six-day period that ended Saturday represents a 30 percent increase compared with the year before. This translates to a daily average of 19,000 people changing their carriers.

The spike in so-called number portability comes as local service providers offered hefty incentives to customers to make the switch and because people who bought the latest flagships, like the Galaxy S8 smartphone from Samsung Electronics Co., wanted to get better rates that often come with changing carriers.

Depending on subscribers and dealers, some people bought a S8 for under 200,000 won ($176) under contract, down from 500,000-600,000 won in the past.

Many South Korean workers took the entire six days off by applying to leave Tuesday and Thursday. Last Monday was international labor day, with Wednesday and Friday being Buddha's Birthday and Children's Day, respectively, which are public holidays here.

Local consumers often use days off to purchase new phones and apply for service carriers.

LG Uplus Corp. saw the net number of subscribers rise the most followed by KT Corp. SK Telecom, the country's largest mobile operator, saw the subscriber number backtrack.

Industry insiders said that the number of transfers could have been higher if it wasn't for the Korea Communications Commission taking steps to clamp down on illegal subsidies for the Galaxy S8 starting Thursday afternoon.

Such government measures actually caused transfers to contract by 27 percent on-year on Friday and Saturday. (Yonhap)