SK Telecom, South Korea's largest mobile carrier, announced that the number of subscribers to its SIM protection service is expected to surpass 20 million on Sunday.

In a press briefing on Sunday, Kim Hee-seop, the head of the company's PR Center, said that a total of 19-point-91 million people had registered for the service as of Sunday morning. 

Kim added that the number is likely to exceed 20 million after Sunday, as the company is now automatically enrolling its subscribers in the protection service.

Kim said that 956-thousand people had replaced their SIM cards as of Saturday, with the company prioritizing the replacement service at airport roaming centers.

He also noted that approximately seven-point-six million people had applied for the replacement service as of Sunday, with around 200-thousand reservations being made each day.

On Saturday, the first day of the extended holiday when outbound travel was expected to peak, approximately 20-thousand SIM cards were replaced at the airports.

Kim stated that the company aims to secure five million SIM cards by the end of the month, adding that its 26-hundred T World stores will focus on the replacement service starting Monday.