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SKT 3rd Most Costly Among Global Carriers
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The Korea Consumer Agency (KCA) Wednesday reported that Koreans paid the most among wireless users in 15 countries last year that had similar levels of mobile use. They included the United States, United Kingdom, France, Singapore and Hong Kong.
The KCA reported that based on mobile rates charged by the top carrier among selected OECD countries and Hong Kong and Singapore, SK Telecom was the third most expensive. Japan's NTT DoCoMo topped the list, followed by the Netherlands' KPN Mobile.
For international roaming charges, SK Telecom was the second most expensive among the 10 carriers on inbound calls to Korea.
The only positive note for Korean consumers was that they were paying the least for text messaging services.
The survey was made using purchasing power parity (PPP), a calculation method that tracks the cost of goods and services across countries. The report relied on several different sources, including the "Global Wireless Matrix" published by Merrill Lynch.
"Like other equipment-based industries, consumer prices for mobile services start out expensive at first, but tend to fall after carriers recover their early investment," said KCA official Lee Sang-shik.
"Oddly, the situation in Korea is just the opposite. It is perhaps inaccurate to say that Koreans pay the least for text messaging, as many carriers in other countries provide limited amounts of text messaging per month for free," he said.
The voice rates charged by Korean carriers were the 10th most expensive among 15 countries with similar wireless use in 2004, but rose to seventh in 2006 and second in 2007 before topping the list last year.
The 15 countries, which included Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Israel, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden, represented markets where the average wireless user spent at least 180 minutes per month talking on their phones.
When the numbers are converted under the PPP method, Koreans spent around $0.1443 per minute for voice over handsets, compared to the $0.1254 spent by Britons, who came in second. French mobile users spent around $0.1209 per minute, followed by Austrians at $0.1187 per minute.
American mobile users spent $0.0500 per minute for voice, which was the least among the 15 countries.
"Consumer rights advocates said that Korean wireless carriers are over-charging subscribers," Lee said.
"According to the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), about 44 percent of consumer complaints on mobile services were related to service charges."
The OECD reported last year that Koreans were spending more of their household income on telecommunications services than any other OECD member state.
Telecommunications charges accounted for 4.81 percent of Korean household expenses, compared to the sub-3 percent average of the 26 OECD member states.
The report drew angry reactions from SK Telecom, which controls more than 50 percent of the country's mobile users, and KT, the runner-up carrier.
The operators claimed that a simple comparison of rates per minute numbers is meaningless when mobile users in other countries often use more than one handset.
"The mobile phone penetration rate of Korea was just a tick below 94 percent. In comparison, Greece's mobile penetration rate is over 200 percent," said a KT official.
"In Korea, the number of used handsets and the population of mobile users are consistent. But in other nations, users can use more than one phone by just switching SIM cards."
thkim@koreatimes.co.kr
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