(Korea Times via NewsEdge) South Korea's telecom rates are expected to substantially decrease in the latter part of this year as the government plans to allow big operators to provide discounted package services.
South Korea's Ministry of Information and Communication said it will let dominant telecom carriers like KT and SK Telecom bundle fixed-line or wireless voice with the Internet at lower prices in July.
"To offer benefits to consumers and spur the telecom markets, we are poised to approve bundling discounts of KT and SK Telecom,'' Information and Communication Minister Rho Jun-hyong said.
"We are ready to give the green light to discount rates less than 10%. Even if the rates are higher than 10 %, we may okay it after checking its impact,'' Rho said.
So far, only small companies have been permitted to offer such bundled services at discounted prices, a policy aimed at diluting the dominance of the large players.
KT is the country's top fixed-line telecom carrier, which services more than 90% of the local landline telephony market and about half of the high-speed Internet demands.
SK Telecom is far-and-away the biggest mobile operator with more than 20 million customers, accounting for 50.4% of the overall market.
KT is expected to combine its wire telephony and broadband offerings with the wireless voice services of KTF, its mobile subsidiary, and SK Telecom will mingle various telecom applications around its mobile services.
It remains to be seen how much KT and SK Telecom will cut prices but experts predict the reduction will be large considering precedents set both at home and abroad.
Hanaro Telecom, the runner-up broadband carrier, currently cuts 44 % off the basic fee for inner-city calls, for those who order the company's high-speed Internet and fixed-line telephone at the same time.
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