SK Telecom and LG U+ have already been hit with a 45-day suspension for alleged repeated violations of a regulated cap on handset subsidies. Now regulator KCC has compounded these suspensions with its own penalties.
KCC will suspend SK Telecom from signing up new customers - and selling handsets to existing customers on contracts less than two years old - for 7 days, Yonhap Newsreported. The regulator has also ordered the operator to pay a 16.6 billion won ($15.5 million) fine.
LG U+ has meanwhile been hit with an extra 14-day suspension and an 8.2 billion won fine. KT has escaped an additional suspension, but has been fined 5.5 billion won.
According to the regulator, South Korea's mobile operators offered average subsidies of 579,000 won per contract between January and February, almost double the 270,000 won limit.
The orders come days after South Korea's telecom ministry ordered 45 day suspensions for all three operators, to take effect on a staggered basis between April 5 and May 19. The timing of the new KCC suspensions will be decided in May after the existing suspensions expire.
The report cites LG U+ as complaining that the nation's smallest mobile operator has been hit with the most severe penalties.