KT SkyLife ignores KCC recommendation

Broadcaster to continue DCS service against regulator’s ban

By Cho Mu-hyun

KT SkyLife is not prepared to back down in a feud with the nation’s telecommunications regulator which deemed a recently launched service by the satellite broadcasting provider illegal.

The company held an emergency press conference Thursday and reaffirmed its position that its dish convergence solution (DCS) is legal and that the Korea Communications Commission’s (KCC) decision to ban it is wrong.

DCS uses technology that transmits digital broadcasts through the Internet, eliminating the need of a disc-shaped antenna.

“We can’t hide our surprise and sadness over the KCC’s decision to block DCS services based on the arguments of certain businesses (cable service companies) and without clear legal grounds,” said Mun Jae-chul, CEO of KT SkyLife. “The decision by the KCC ignores consumer’s rights to access high-quality broadcasting.”

The CEO also said DCS is a technological innovation that will inevitably become widely disseminated, adding that such a tide can’t be stopped by the KCC.

During a press conference, a large placard hung behind Mun with the words “Just as breaking the neck of a rooster doesn’t stop dawn from coming, viewers and DCS will win!”

The telecommunications regulator decreed Wednesday that KT SkyLife’s DCS service was practically the same as Internet protocol television, which also uses the Web to transmit programs. It ordered the broadcaster to stop all promotional activities to gain more customers and said the 12,201 current users should end their subscriptions “as soon as possible.”

“Aug. 29, 2012, (Wednesday) will be remembered as an embarrassing day that saw consumer convenience violated and saw the KCC retrogressing against its reason for existing (to protect consumers),” said Mun. The CEO said it was prepared to launch an administrative lawsuit against the KCC if pressure to end the service continues. He also said that despite the regulator’s announcement, no official documents have been passed on to his company by the government.

A KCC representative said that the regulator was unchanged on its position on the matter and that it will soon send formal documentation to the company.

There is currently no law that categorizes DCS like that for satellite and Internet broadcasting but the government agency said it will modify or make laws to solve the problem.

Cable companies that have a monopoly over paid broadcasting services, argue that it is too similar to Internet protocol television and submitted a complaint to the KCC in July. KT’s broadcasting subsidiary and the Korea Cable Television & Telecommunications Association (KCTA) have been mired in a battle of words since then over the controversial service.

KT SkyLife has retaliated against the KCTA’s allegations by criticizing some cable services that resemble IPTV, asking the regulator to monitor them more closely for possible illegalities.

The CEO also expressed his regrets that though his company was the most active in assisting the KCC’s plan to end all analogue services and go 100 percent digital by the end of the year, the government agency favored cable businesses which were “passive” in their support of the movement.