.jpg) An employee of KT, a mobile-phone operator, explains the company’s products to potential foreign customers at a KT flagship store in Sinchon, Seoul, Sunday. KT, the local provider of the immensely popular Apple iPhone, is rewriting its contract and payment requirements for non-Koreans to make its phones more accessible and affordable for them. / Korea Times |
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff reporter
South Korea has been swept away by iPhone euphoria, but expatriates have complained about the complicated contract requirements by wireless operators here that kept them out of the party.
Now, KT, the local provider of the iPhones, is promising to try harder to please foreign Apple fanatics.
KT, the country's second-largest mobile-phone carrier after SK Telecom, announced a set of measures Sunday to make its handsets more affordable and accessible to non-Korean users.
The company's revised service plans for foreigners include lowered visa barriers for registering phones and larger flexibility in phone installment and monthly payment plans. KT will also increase its number of multi-lingual stores in Seoul, where questions can be fielded in English, Chinese, Japanese and other languages.
"The idea is to allow foreign nationals to subscribe to our telecommunications services on the same conditions as Koreans," said Jin Byung-gwon, a KT spokesman.
"The specialized stores for foreigners will be first established in districts such as Itaewon and Gwanghwamun and areas around colleges, such as Kyung Hee University, which are known for their large number of foreign residents. The stores will be introduced in other metropolitan cities and also in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, which has a large foreign community."
Previously, foreign nationals with F-2, F-4 or F-5 visas, which are issued to those with Korean "blood" heritage, or people married to a Korean national or granted permanent residential status, were able to sign the conventional two-year contracts for iPhones and other mobile phones.
Foreign residents with other types of visas could only get the phones on one-year contracts and also had to buy the handsets upfront and not in monthly installments, which was a strain on their wallets.
Wireless carriers had long insisted the restrictions as inevitable, as foreign mobile users leaving without paying the bills remain a problem for them.
However, with the iPhone taking the country by storm, there has been an increasing voice from the expat community that the carriers should consider more ways to make it easier for foreign nationals to buy and register phones.
According to KT's eased subscription and payment requirements, foreign nationals with A-1, A-2, E-1, E-3, E-4, and E-5 visas, which are given to diplomats, government employees, educators, researchers and technology experts, are newly allowed to purchase phones in installments, regardless of their remaining visa periods.
Aside from the multi-lingual stores, KT is also operating a telephone hotline (02-2190-1180) where operators provide consulting in English, Chinese and Japanese.
"There are more than 1.16 million foreigners in South Korea, with the country becoming integrated more in international business. But despite the country's reputation as an information technology power (IT), the telecommunications service environment for expatriates has been inadequate," said Pyo Hyun-myung, who heads KT's wireless division.
"With the smartphone era blurring the national boundaries between telecommunication services, we will focus on extending our best services to foreigners."
There are about 910,000 foreign nationals subscribed to mobile services here, with about half of them using prepaid phones, according to industry figures.
KT has sold more than 700,000 iPhones since the late November release, nearly singlehandedly igniting a smartphone frenzy that has put the industry on the cusp of a mobile Internet explosion.
