Regulator to target one mobile carrier
Lee Kyeong-jae KCC Chairman
By Kim Yoo-chul
Korea’s top telecom regulator said Monday that it will single out a mobile carrier for additional punishment for causing an excessive subsidy war.
The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) will impose another business suspension and a fine of at least 50 billion won on the company subject to punishment.
The move came as the regulator believes that earlier punitive measures imposed on three carriers ― SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus ― at the same time turned out to be ineffective.
“If we decide to impose heavy penalties on a single carrier, no objection is expected. That firm should accept it,” KCC Chairman Lee Kyeong-jae said in a luncheon meeting with reporters near the government complex in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, Monday.
The remarks came a day after Jun Young-maan, director at the government agency’s telecom market policy bureau, said that the KCC recently began investigating the three for continuing to offer illegal handset subsides.
“We believe that should the KCC penalize a single mobile carrier, it will maximize the effects of the punishment,” Lee told reporters.
All three carries declined to comment on Lee’s remarks.
During the meeting, KCC officials said the punishment will be imposed sometime in August after a thorough review of the subsidies that are against the Telecommunications Law. The maximum cap in subsidies that carriers can offer is set at 270,000 won per person.
“Imposing a 50 billion won fine on a single carrier is one option,” said an official, adding that the agency believes that all three carriers have been providing over
270,000 won to entice new customers.
“We don’t care about resistance from carriers. We will proceed as scheduled but with full fact checking over such alleged illegal activities and reviews,” said the official.
During January 7 to March 12 when the three carriers were ordered to stop signing up new customers. Uplus got 156,488 new customers, while SK Telecom and KT lost 91,358 and 65,130, respectively, data from the KCC showed.
In March, the KCC imposed a combined 5.3 billion won penalty on the carriers with the top carrier SK Telecom and the runner-up KT receiving 3.1 billion won and 1.6 billion won in fines, respectively.