By Kim Yoo-chul
SK Telecom is trying to maintain its position as industry leader by sticking to its unlimited data plan for smartphone customers.
KT and LG Uplus want SK Telecom to drop it before they consider doing so.
The smaller rivals fear that if they drop the plan first, it would lead its subscribers to migrate to the No. 1 carrier.
``Because our customers prefer it, we won’t scrap the data pricing plan,’’ said SK Telecom chief executive Ha Sung-min during a recent meeting with reporters in Seoul.
He said that it would be a marketing decision. But signs are that Ha is behind it, using the issue as a chance to stand up and show his backbone at a time when his firm is beleaguered by a saturated market.
SK had reached an internal consensus to end the plan because carriers are rapidly shifting to the data-intensive service of long-term evolution (LTE).
SK is insisting it will have an edge in a pricing war.
All three carriers offer unlimited data plans. With a monthly payment of 55,000 won, smartphone users are able to use unlimited mobile applications without any concern about additional fees. This is burdening carriers who need to boost investment in networks.
``The explosive growth of mobile wireless data is partly due to unnecessary mobile applications that have been causing heavy data traffic,’’ said KT Chairman Lee Suk-chae.
``With massive investment, KT has doubled its capacity for wireless data, however that’s not enough,’’ said Lee, adding the demand for mobile wireless data needs to be controlled via the introduction of new pricing measures.
LG Uplus Vice Chairman and CEO Lee Sang-chul has also formed an alliance with the KT Chairman by urging the nation’s converged telecommunications regulator to push SK Telecom to scrap the unlimited data plan.
``The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) should do more because the current unlimited data plan is against fair competition,’’ said the LG Vice Chairman Lee in a separate meeting with reporters.
He warned that data-intensive smart TVs will cause mountains of mobile data traffic and even the advanced telecommunications technologies of long-term evolution (LTE) would not be enough.
Smartphone users continuously complain that they are inconvenienced by bad quality mobile voice services.
Mobile operators insist that the rising mobile traffic doesn’t have any significant impact on the quality of vice services but a lot of technology experts indicate that the unlimited data plans are the root cause of the problem.
Local mobile carriers have seen significantly increased traffic on their 3G-based mobile services, data from the KCC shows.
Top U.S.-based telecom carriers including Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile have recently announced that they will stop unlimited data plans after incessant complaints from smartphone subscribers over poor voice service quality.
SK Telecom officials said nothing has been decided whether the carrier will apply unlimited data plan, even for LTE services, although speculation exists that SK won’t.