Detail

`The Korea Telecommunication Authority is inaugurated on January 1, 1982. Korean telecommunication has come a long way from the time of its first introduction to Korea in 1898, when a manual-service telephone system was istalled in the royal palace. In 1935 the automatic dial telephine was introduced, and had since been extended to meet ever-increasing subscripyion and perfected in technology until 1979, when the first Analog electronic switching systems were installed in two Seoul telephone offies. The year 1980 saw the arrival of a new era of mass supply of electronic switching systems all over the country. As a result, the prospect is that more than a million electronic switching system for local telephone must be added each year over the period of the Fifth Five Year Economic Development Plan. The rapid increase of national demand for telephone and other telecommunication systems has brought about need for drastic extension of the service, together with the urgency to import and develop new technology. The situation is such that the traditional gorvernment operation of the service is far too inadequate to meet the demand effectively. Thus, the government came to the decision in December 1980 to put the service under a corporate management. After a full year of preparation, the new form of management has been born under the name of the Korea Telecommunication Authority(KTA). The new-born company, a great complex of enterprise capitalized at 2.5 trillion won, with some 35,000 employees, has now taken over from the Ministry of Communications the job of rendering the telecommunication service to the nation and istalling and maintaining the required facilities. The Ministry of Communications issues this commemorative stamp in celebration of the hopeful start of the Korea Telecommunication Authority, the corporaton that is expected to expert creativity and vigor in developing new technology in order to meet the exploding national demand for more and better service.`