SKT to Charge Voice Calls per Second
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
SK Telecom, the country’s biggest mobile telephony operator, said it will charge voice calls by each second starting next month, replacing the current rate that takes 18 won for every 10 seconds.
The move comes at a time when the country’s wireless carriers, which also include KT and LG Telecom, are facing increasing pressure from government and consumers to lower the prices of their voice services.
SK Telecom officials said that the transition to a per-second billing scheme will allow consumers to shave their monthly bills.
For example, the company’s mobile-phone users had previously paid the same 36 won for 11 seconds and 20 seconds. But with SK Telecom charging 1.8 won per second, 11 seconds would now cost 19.8 won.
As of January, SK Telecom’s 24.4 million customers accounted for 50.7 percent of the country’s mobile-phone users, followed by KT’s 31.3 percent and LG Telecom’s 18 percent.
Consumer-rights advocates have long complained that mobile-phone operators are exploiting subscribers with their current billing scheme, which allowed them to collect hundreds of billions of won every year on voice call minutes that were never actually used.
SK Telecom said per-second billing will slash its revenue by 168 billion won (about $145 million) this year and 201 billion won in 2011.
However, the effect will be less visible on monthly bills, as the difference is expected to be around 8,000 won per year for the average user.
``The per-second billing scheme will benefit every SK Telecom customer, regardless of which plan they are signed up to,’’ said Ha Sung-min, who heads SK Telecom’s mobile network operations unit.
``It is a meaningful change for us in accepting demands from government and civic groups.’’
SK Telecom’s preemptive move obviously puts KT and LG Telecom on the hot seat, especially when the government is becoming more heavy-handed in its approach to slashing mobile phone bills.
KT downplayed SKT’s transition to per-second billing, claiming that its effect on consumers is exaggerated.
Lowering household telecommunications expenses was one of the campaign pledges of President Lee Myung-bak, and now the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), the country’s converged regulator for broadcasting and telecommunications, has taken up the role as enforcer.
At the National Assembly Monday, KCC Chairman Choi See-joong said the agency will push KT and LG Telecom into switching to per-second billing.
``If SK Telecom introduces its per-second billing scheme from March 1, other competitors will be influenced and pressured to act. Our intention is to push them in that direction,’’ Choi told lawmakers.
When asked about KT’s resistance, Choi replied, ``We can’t force a private company to do a certain thing that is related to management, but we do believe that the issue of per-second billing will continue to come up for now.’’
SK Telecom hopes that expected increases in data sales will more than make up for the decline in voice revenue, with smartphones becoming popular.
KT released the Apple iPhone in November, and SK Telecom is set to respond with a slew of handsets powered by the Google-backed Android operating system.
SK Telecom aims to sell around 2 million smartphones this year, a number KT vows to match.