Minister Yusang-im of MSIT: "Decision on 4th Mobile Carrier Policy Within This Year"

Minister Yusangim "Promote 4th Telecom Comprehensive Team for Communication"
Criticism Arises Over Ineffectiveness of Telecom Cost Reduction Policy
Deputy Minister Kang Dohyun "Mid-Low Price Plans Show Some Effect"

Yoo Sang-im, Minister of Science and ICT, announced that a decision will be made within the year on whether to continue the '4th Mobile Carrier (hereinafter 4th Mobile Carrier) policy,' one of the measures to reduce communication costs.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

At the plenary meeting of the National Assembly's Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee on the 26th, Minister Yoo responded to a question from Park Min-gyu, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, asking, "Please clarify your exact position on whether the 4th Mobile Carrier policy will be discontinued," by saying, "We are still operating a comprehensive response team and communicating," and "A decision will be made within the year."

The 4th Mobile Carrier policy was introduced in 2010 as one of the measures to reduce national communication costs, but the selection of the eighth company has failed so far this year. The Ministry of Science and ICT canceled the selection of StageX, which was chosen as the target corporation this year, on the grounds that it failed to fulfill necessary requirements, such as not paying the capital of 205 billion KRW by the deadline.

There were also criticisms that the effectiveness of communication cost reduction policies, such as expanding switching subsidies, is lacking. Representative Park said, "Switching subsidies are only applied to old devices, limiting the policy's effectiveness and acting as a negative factor in the budget phone market," adding, "There are also responses that receiving subsidies ties users to high-priced plans, placing a burden on the low-income economy."

In response, Kang Do-hyun, the 2nd Vice Minister of Science and ICT, said, "We are implementing various policies, but I believe the most important policy, which is the full transition to mid- to low-priced plans, has a certain effect," and added, "Although there have been many criticisms of the budget phone policy, we plan to establish a policy soon."

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