Telecom 3 Companies to Advance Payment of 273.9 Billion KRW to Partners Ahead of Chuseok

Minister Lee Jong-ho of the Ministry of Science and ICT is attending the CEO meeting of the three major telecommunications companies held at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Jung-gu, Seoul, on the afternoon of the 11th, and is taking a commemorative photo. From the left, Yoo Young-sang, CEO of SK Telecom; Lee Jong-ho, Minister of Science and ICT; Koo Hyun-mo, CEO of KT; Hwang Hyun-sik, CEO of LG Uplus. Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Su-yeon] The three major mobile carriers will pay a total of 273.9 billion KRW in advance to their suppliers on the 1st in celebration of Chuseok, to ease the financial burden on their partners. This move aims to help small and medium-sized suppliers secure liquidity amid increased cash demand ahead of the holiday.

SK Telecom announced that it plans to pay approximately 132 billion KRW in advance to its business partners before the start of the holiday, together with its ICT family companies such as SK Broadband and SK Stoa.

Including SKT, the ICT family will pay about 52 billion KRW in advance to around 1,100 small and medium-sized partners such as network equipment and maintenance companies, and about 80 billion KRW to approximately 270 agencies nationwide.

SKT stated that it decided to pay early to help small business partners responsible for network equipment, maintenance, and service operations, who have worked hard to maintain service quality even during the COVID-19 situation, to manage their funds smoothly ahead of the holiday. Through this, the total amount SKT has paid early to small and medium-sized suppliers this year reaches 480 billion KRW.

Additionally, SKT said it is operating the interest support rate for loans to excellent partners through the Win-Win Growth Fund 0.93 percentage points higher than before, to help reduce the financial burden on small and medium-sized suppliers facing increased financial pressure due to the recent sharp economic downturn and interest rate hikes.

To grow together with its business partners, SKT provides free ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) diagnostics and participates in 'ESG Happy Plogging' (an activity of picking up trash while jogging), supporting ESG management practices. It also offers consulting related to the Serious Accident Punishment Act, including practical measures to prevent serious accidents. Alongside this, various win-win growth activities such as the 'Immediate Payment for SMEs' program, industrial innovation consulting, and an online recruitment center for business partners are being steadily carried out.

KT Group announced that it will pay 124.9 billion KRW in advance to its partner companies by the 7th.

This early payment of partner companies' Chuseok holiday funds is up to 20 days earlier than the originally scheduled date. Six affiliates including KT Alpha, KT Commerce, KT DS, KT Engineering, HCN, and Initech are also participating.

With this early payment, it is expected that the financial burden on small and medium-sized partners facing increased cash demand ahead of the Chuseok holiday will be alleviated. KT has continuously advanced payment of delivery funds to partners during the Lunar New Year and Chuseok holidays. Last Chuseok, KT and its affiliates paid a total of 117.7 billion KRW in advance, and 75.6 billion KRW ahead of this year's Lunar New Year.

KT is also implementing the '2022 Chuseok Holiday Clean KT Campaign,' which prohibits exchanging gifts with partners and other stakeholders to strengthen ethical management practices.

LG Uplus will pay 17 billion KRW in delivery payments 100% in cash in advance.

Since 2014, LG Uplus has been advancing delivery payments before the Chuseok and Lunar New Year holidays to promote mutual growth with its partners. The cumulative amount of early payments over the past seven years has reached 330 billion KRW as of the end of last year.

The early payment funds are paid to partners responsible for delivering wireless repeaters, wired network equipment, network construction, IT development, and operations. The partners plan to use the early secured funds for new product production, facility investment, and research and development expenses.

In addition, to support small and medium-sized partners, LG Uplus operates programs such as the ‘Win-Win Growth Fund’ in cooperation with IBK Industrial Bank of Korea, which provides low-interest loans; programs directly supporting partners’ new product development funds; the ‘5G Innovation Lab’ supporting new services and device development based on 5G technology; and ‘Partner Proposal Day,’ which guarantees a certain level of purchase for products selected after evaluation when small and medium-sized partners propose ideas for communication equipment or solution development.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.