It may be hard to believe but North Korea opened its 3rd generation mobile and Internet services to foreigners Feb. 25 as reported by a correspondent of Renmin Rebao of China.
In its detailed report the following day, the newspaper, with reportedly the largest circulation in the world, said five people registered for the services on the very first day.
Under the program, foreigners are allowed a single mobile and Internet line which can be accessed by devices under their own personal names.
They have to pay a registration fee of 75 euros (about 110,000 won) after which they can use up to 50 megabytes in basic data.
The standard monthly charge is 10 euros and subscribers are charged 0.15 euros per 1 megabyte for the use of the mobile and Internet services.
The subscribers also have the option of using mobile LAN (local area network) cards through USBs (universal serial bus) devices with the starting price of 75 euros after which they are charged 150 euros for 2 gigabytes, 250 euros for 5 gigabytes and 400 euros for the use of 10 gigabytes.
The Renmin report said access to general Internet sites was easy and that the services are comparable to mainland China.
It also mentioned that the sudden change in North Korea’s attitude toward more openness to the cyber world visiting its country was encouraged by the recent visit there by Google Chairman Eric Schmidt.