By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The government is considering making service providers charge telephone users the same rates for both local and long-distance calls to help reduce household spending on telecommunications.
The Korea Communications Commission (KCC), the country's regulator for broadcasting and telecommunications, believes that eliminating long-distance rates could slash household expenses on telecommunications by 7 to 8 percent.
Policymakers are also considering a variety of measures to get mobile-phone rates lowered, such as allowing consumers to trade handset subsidies for lower voice rates and offering 10- to 20-percent discounts on local calls for subscribers signed to two-year contracts or longer.
``None of the plans have been finalized yet, although more detailed guidelines could be announced by the end of the week. The approval process for the new rates for mobile operators will start after the Chuseok holidays,'' a KCC official said.
Currently, subscribers are charged 248 to 261 won per three minutes for calls beyond the 30-kilometer radius of the caller that are categorized as long-distance calls. Calls made to closer recipients ― local calls ― are charged at 39 won per three minutes. Korea has no distinction between long-distance and intercity calls.
Aside of introducing a wider variety of discount options for mobile-phone users, the government is also considering forcing a reduction in the monthly basic rates for wireless services, currently ranging from 30,000 to 50,000 won, by 10,000 to 15,000 won.
The introduction of prepaid mobile services, with basic rates set at around 5,000 won, is another idea to lower consumer spending on mobile services, while the government will also press carriers to introduce more fixed-rate data plans to encourage mobile Internet use.
KCC has been putting further pressure on telecommunications carriers to lower their consumer prices, based on the Lee Myung-bak government pledge to lower household telecommunications spending by around 20 percent.