The number of Internet phone users in the nation surpassed ten million at of the end of last month.

The Korea Communications Commission said Monday that since Internet phone services began in 2006, the number of Internet phone subscribers has increased from 330-thousand to ten million.

Sales by such service providers totaled 837 billion won or around three times the number of sales posted in 2006.

The commission said that the number of Internet phone subscribers surged since October 2008 when a system was introduced allowing people to use Internet phone services while keeping their existing home phone numbers.

At the beginning of its introduction, such services saw slow growth in subscriptions due to concerns about the quality of phone connections and the inconvenience of having to change phone numbers.