KT launches data-saving plan for teenagers

By Yoon Sung-won

KT said Sunday it has launched a new subscription plan for teenagers and young adults, dubbed the “Y Teen,” offering extra data packages for entertainment and education content.

The nation’s second-largest mobile carrier said it seeks to strengthen its service portfolio by providing differentiated benefits specialized for age brackets.

“We will solidify our position as unique benefits for the subscribers aged 24 and younger by rolling out the new plan, following the one dubbed ‘Y24’ for those in their 20s,” KT’s marketing division head Kang Kook-hyun said in a statement.

“As the Y24 plan has drawn more than 170,000 subscribers so far, the new plan for teenagers is also expected to gain a favorable response. We will continue to work to provide diverse services dedicated for each age bracket.”

The Y Teen plan includes four price options by the size of the given data package, ranging from 1,400 megabytes (MB) to 4,700MB. With the 4,700MB package, subscribers can get unlimited access to the data network, but the connection speed is limited to 400 kilobits per second, the company said.

Unlike most unlimited monthly plans, the new one does not offer unlimited voice calling and text messages.

KT stressed that the Y Teen plan allows subscribers to instantly double their monthly data packages and use music streaming and education content without spending the data package.

Once the data doubling option is turned on, subscribers can use data by spending only half of what they have actually consumed. In this case, the maximum network speed is limited to 2 megabits per second (Mbps), the company said.

By combining the doubling option with KT’s other data sharing services such as the “Family Box,” subscribers can double the data capacity that they receive from other family members.

KT said this option can be instantly activated and deactivated using its customer service application. It is also automatically deactivated at the end of every month, it said.

“The Y Teen plan is the nation’s first monthly plan that offers the data doubling option,” KT said. “With this option, subscribers can maximize the use of data and we can lessen the burden on our network infrastructure.”

KT also said the Y Teen plan includes a data subpackage option that subscribers will pay a certain amount of their data package from what they have given as their basic capacity to purchase more efficient data options for entertainment, education and voice call subpackages.

For instance, the “EBS Daily Pack” provides 1 gigabyte of data for the education broadcaster’s video content every day in exchange for 600MB of the basic data package. After the 1GB limit, subscribers can still access unlimited education content under a 3Mbps speed limit. The “Genie Pack” offers access to KT’s music streaming service as well as unlimited free data capacity dedicated for the service, in exchange for 300MB of the basic data package.

By using 2,200MB from the monthly basic data package, subscribers can receive 10 hours of voice calling every day, KT said. The company also said the extra data capacity given in the package can be shared between different subpackages.