LG Telecom Defies Govts 010 Number Policy
By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter
LG Telecom contested the government's policy on mobile phone numbers, resisting the Ministry of Information and Communication's instruction to change the phone prefix number from 019 to 010 for its third-generation service.
The firm said Wednesday that the ministry should be blamed for the inconvenience users experienced incurred by the number policy, adding that it will conduct a public poll on its Web site from today to put pressure on the ministry.
The unprecedented challenge from the smallest player in the three-way telecom industry is likely to remain as a heavy burden and an irksome issue to Minister Yoo Young-hwan whose tenure will probably end next February when a new president takes office.
``If the ministry pushes to revise the law and dares to cause complaints from 3.4 million customers, the responsibility should definitely be on the ministry,'' the company said in a statement written in a determined tone.
``The ministry is now trying to cut off our hands and feet,'' a spokesman said on the phone. ``This is nonsense. The ministry is behaving in favor of SK Telecom and KTF.''
The ministry has been trying to consolidate all the mobile phone codes to 010 before 2008, but telecom firms have been reluctant as customers do not wish to change their phone numbers. The firms must give the 010 code to its third-generation service users, instead of their old identification numbers of 011 and 017 (SK Telecom), 016 and 018 (KTF) and 019 (LG Telecom).
To speed up the transition, Minister Yoo said this week that LG Telecom should comply with the government's numbering policy even if there is a short-term resistance from users.
``LG Telecom should review the 010 policy from the beginning,'' Yoo said in a meeting with reporters. ``The policy was made in favor of small players in the market such as LG Telecom. I believe that LG Telecom will understand this.''
LG Telecom, however, firmly resisted the call. Undeterred by the minister's hope, the firm began to sell its third-generation phones from Tuesday under the old 019 and other numbers.
The conflict between the ministry and LG Telecom was caused by the ambiguity of the term ``third generation (3G).''
In the telecom industry, 3G generally refers to W-CDMA and CDMA2000 (EVDO) standards. SK Telecom and KTF use the W-CDMA standard for their 3G services. LG Telecom selected the EVDO ``Revision A,'' which is an advanced version of Revision 0.
SK Telecom and KTF have given the 010 numbers to their respective third generation services, ``Show'' and ``T Live.'' LG Telecom, however, said that the two firms have long been selling the EVDO ``Revision 0'' phones under the 011, 017 and 016 numbers, and it is not fair to exclude the Revision 0 phones in the 010 consolidation policy.