Ministry of Science and ICT Reviews Market Share Restrictions for MVNO Subsidiaries of the Three Major Telecom Operators

'Meeting to Strengthen Competitiveness of Altteul Phone' Held

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Su-yeon] The government is considering imposing market share limits on the budget phone subsidiaries of the three major telecom companies.

On the 10th, Park Yoon-kyu, the 2nd Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated at the 'Budget Phone Competitiveness Enhancement Meeting' held at the Seoul office of the Korea Intelligent Information Society Agency in Jung-gu, Seoul, "A bill regarding the limitation of market share for subsidiaries of the three major telecom companies has been proposed," adding, "We will deliberate on what alternatives exist to promote competition and create a healthy ecosystem, including this measure."

Yoon-gyu Park, Second Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT (second from the left), is giving a greeting at the "Meeting to Strengthen the Competitiveness of Affordable Phones" held on the 10th at the Seoul Office of the Korea Intelligent Information Society Agency in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Ministry of Science and ICT

Vice Minister Park pointed out that budget phone 5G plans are more expensive than LTE plans and are not diverse. He said, "More than 90% of budget phone subscribers are LTE users," and added, "The industry and government must work together to develop more diverse and affordable budget phone 5G plans."

Regarding the wholesale price calculation method, he stated that consultations with the National Assembly will be held to enable innovative services and various pricing plans. The current wholesale price calculation method is the 'retail minus' approach, which sets budget phone rates as a certain percentage of the retail prices of the three major telecom companies.

In light of the recent LG Uplus personal information leak incident, where subscriber information of LG Uplus budget phone affiliates was also leaked, he emphasized the responsibility of the operators. Vice Minister Park said, "The responsibility of budget phone operators must be strengthened, and for that, independent budget phone operators, not subsidiaries of telecom companies, need to grow in scale to bear that responsibility," adding, "We will discuss policy measures such as activating mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the budget phone sector."

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