By Kim Yoo-chul
SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus will cut its registration fees by half and offer more benefits to the elderly and people with disabilities.
These are part of policy initiatives that the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) proposed in a briefing to President Park Geun-hye in June.
"From Sept. 1, SK Telecom will charge 10,800 won as a one-time registration fee for new customers, cutting the current price in half from 21,600 won," said SK Telecom in a statement.
KT, No. 2 mobile carrier, will also charge 7,200 won, while customers who register with LG Uplus' telecom service will now pay 9,000 won.
The three will spend about 170 billion won to cover shortfalls from the reduced fees annually, according to officials in the telecommunications industry.
"The announcement is part of our efforts to respond to the government's consistent efforts to help the public by lessening their burden when paying their telecom bills," said an official at KT.
On a related note, market leader SK Telecom will provide more data for a maximum of 900 megabytes to 12 data billing packages ― six for younger, two for older and four for the disabled. Registration for these will not be required.
KT will release a new telecom service from August 31 for people with hearing loss. This will include 10 hours of live video calls worth 37,895 won. Uplus, whose business is currently suspended as a measure of the government's punishment to offer illegal telecom subsidies, said it will roll out new telecom services once the suspension is lifted.
SK Telecom said it will cut more of the registration fee while SK's two other rivals also said they will follow SK Telecom's plan to lower the fee. The ICT ministry plans to phase out the one-off administration fee from August 2015.
"Our plan to abolish the registration fee hasn't changed," said the MSIP spokesman. The government agency said 24 countries have abolished such fees.
"Mobile phone users here have long complained about paying the fee, which no longer exists in most advanced countries," he said.
But abolition of the fee may hurt the bottom lines of the mobile carriers, which are already under growing pressure to lower rates even more and been accused of charging excessive rates by local civic groups.