SK Telecom, the nation's leading mobile carrier that reported a hacking incident involving a leak of users’ SIM card information, announced that it will begin SIM card formatting amid a shortage of replacement chips.

In a press release on Tuesday, SK Telecom said it intends to adopt the formatting system mid-May to address the shortage of SIM cards for its 24 million subscribers.

The carrier said formatting is expected to allow users to change the internal information of their devices without having to reset mobile apps and store data, while keeping the existing SIM card.

Subscribers, however, will still need to visit authorized SK Telecom stores for formatting.

According to the carrier, three-point-82 million reservations for SIM card replacement were made Monday alone, and the number of users subscribing to the free SIM protection service is expected to surpass ten million on Tuesday.