[2024 National Audit] Park Jeonghun "Cancellation of 4th Telecom, Decision from Telecom Companies' Perspective? Suspicious"

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On the 8th, Park Jeong-hoon, a member of the People Power Party, held the Ministry of Science and ICT accountable for the failure to launch the 4th mobile carrier.

Earlier, in July, the Ministry of Science and ICT had issued a final notice canceling the selection of StageX, which was preparing to become the 4th mobile carrier, citing reasons such as unpaid capital.

During the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee audit on the same day, Representative Park asked, "Who would be the happiest if the launch of the 4th mobile carrier ultimately fails?" and added, "The existing three mobile carriers must have felt threatened."

He continued, "StageX promised to offer services at half the price of current communication fees, which was expected to bring many benefits to the public and raised high expectations in the related equipment industry."

He asked, "Do you acknowledge that the Ministry of Science and ICT's mishandling has caused damage to the related industries and consumers?" Minister Yoo Sang-im of the Ministry of Science and ICT replied, "To some extent." Minister Yoo also said, "We will carefully decide on the ninth attempt to launch the 4th mobile carrier."

Park Jeong-hoon, Member of the People Power Party

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Representative Park said, "Although the licensing system was changed to a registration system to ensure the success of the 4th mobile carrier's launch, there are suspicious aspects in the process of its failure," and added, "Considering the resistance from the existing three carriers, I suspect that the Ministry of Science and ICT may have viewed this issue from the perspective of the three carriers."

Minister Yoo firmly denied this, saying, "There is no such possibility." He further explained that the reason for the cancellation was "because the capital was not raised as originally promised."

Representative Park said, "It should have been made clear that the capital must be paid before approval," and added, "Since the three carriers are not favorable to this business, I have doubts and will look into it further."

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