SEOUL, KOREA - Beginning next month, those mobile phone users who have used their phone devices for more than two years will get a discount of 12 percent in their monthly bills.

 

The Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning said on September 28 that it has determined the discount rate offered to those signing up for mobile telecom services without getting device subsidies at 12 percent from October 1 when "the mobile phone handset retail structure improvement law" takes effect.

 

The new law was intended to remedy the "unfair" incentive given to those who replace their devices more often by making the customers choose between device subsidies and monthly rate discount. The discount rate determined today was designed to discourage excessive replacement of phone handsets. For example, a customer who has signed up for a two-year contract for a rate plan paying 69,000 won a month is currently paying 51,500 won after a 25-percent sign-up discount of 17,500 won. From October 1, her monthly bill would be reduced to 45,320 won after a 12-percent discount, or 6,180 won.

 

Those customers who have replaced their handsets within the past 24 months for reasons such as theft or malfunction are also eligible for the discount. The ministry will adjust the discount rate every three months after reviewing subsidy data submitted by mobile telecom service operators every month. Lyu Je-myung, a ministry official in charge of telecom services, said, "It is estimated about 1 million people will be qualified to get the discount beginning next month."