According to a recent report, the nation's elementary, middle and high school students use their smartphones for five hours per day, mainly for entertainment such as streaming videos and music as well as games.

As a result, smartphone users are desperately seeking ways to extend their battery life any further.

To relieve its customers of such distress, KT has come up with a technology minimizing a smartphone's power consumption on its advanced long-term evolution (LTE) wireless network, helping batteries last longer by up to 45 percent.

This is the first time for a domestic wireless operator to adopt the technology nationwide.

The Seoul-based telecom giant is taking advantage of a sophisticated system comparable to automakers' idle stop-and-go system, which automatically turns off and restarts an engine to increase fuel efficiency.

Under the conventional system, smartphones have to continuously communicate with signal stations, but the updated KT technology will minimize this procedure, allowing devices to save power.

How long a battery life is extended may vary depending on multiple factors, including the wireless environment, smartphone model in use and the number of installed applications. But under the same set of conditions, the new format can substantially improve battery life, according to KT.

"For instance, a test by the state-run agency showed that the new tech made a Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S8 battery last four hours and 27 minutes longer, or 45 percent," a KT official said.

Otherwise, the smartphone battery lasted for nine hours and 57 minutes, but the new KT tech extended the battery life to 14 hours and 24 minutes.

The official added: "In the case of Samsung's Galaxy S7, its battery life was extended by 43 percent."

The test took place while the devices played out the same YouTube videos.

The service has been in operation since April 1 and KT subscribers can take advantage of the battery-saving technology without having to update software or change devices.

Despite being new to Korean users, the technology has widely been in use in many countries. It is an LTE standard set by the Third Generation Partnership Project, a group of telecommunications associations.

Verizon and AT&T, the top two U.S. cellular companies, were earlier than KT in embracing the new way of improving battery life. So did Japan's NTT Docomo and Softbank as well as players in Italy, France and Spain.

To provide its subscribers with the cutting-edge technology without a hitch, KT spent two years on tests and studies.

The former state monopoly, which was fully privatized in 2002, repeated application testing with 114 devices to deal with any problems. It also conducted many other tests, including 35 field tests, to assure better battery life without compromising quality. KT said that it spent 3,240 hours on the tests.

According to a survey last year by Trend Monitor, a private research firm, 79.9 percent of smartphone users want a better battery life and 62.6 percent expressed concerns over battery discharge.

"KT's swift action is expected to satisfy the growing needs of smartphone users," the KT official said.

Since the launch of the service, KT has held tryout events in 30 regions across the nation until May 25 in order to help more people use the advanced technology.

At the event, consumers can compare the battery life with their own smartphones.