Astring of policies the Korean government has released to promote thecompetition and rationalize the regulation in the nation’s mobile telecommarket are drawing hot attention as a way to lead to a reduction in telecomservice rates and the increase in consumer benefits.
TheMinistry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning presented the allowance of new businessesto enter the telecom market and the invigoration of the mobile virtual networkoperator market as a way to strengthen competition in the telecom market.
Torationalize the regulations in this area, the ministry decided to abolish therate approval scheme and reshuffle the telecom equipment wholesale market.
Thetelecom industry expects these policies to have a strong impact on the market.The nation’s wireless telecom market has been dominated by three major players—SKTelecom, KT, and LG U+. They have divided the market with a ratio of 5:3:2 overthe past decade.
Thecompetition among them disappeared as their market share remained stagnant,raising speculation about possible price collusion. Against this backdrop, theentry of a new business into the several trillion won market could trigger theexisting players to compete again, and, eventually leading to a possibledecrease in telecom service rates.
By Chun Go-eun
