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The Ministry of Science and Information & Communication Technology (hereinafter referred to as the Ministry of Science & ICT) previously rejected the application of SK Telecom (hereinafter referred to as SKT) for the approval of a 5G price plan, stating the opinion that it was centered on a high-capacity high-priced plan. Eventually however, SKT achieved the goal of introducing the “World’s First 5G Commercialization” by including a 50,000 KRW price plan.
Accordingly, the price monitoring center of the Korea National Council of Consumer Organizations (Chairperson Gyeong-Soon Ju) has examined the adequacy of the prices along with the newly-presented 5G price plans and an analysis of the financial statements of the three mobile telecommunication companies.
The cheapest price of the 5G plans is 16.5 times more expensive than the highest plan price
With 5G being introduced, the household communication cost for 4 persons is expected to increase by 80,000 KRW to 160,000 KRW per month.
Comparing the price of data that has been provided, it was determined that the 55,000-KRW plan has a rate of 6,875 KRW per GB and the 125,000-KRW plan has a rate of about 417 KRW, which means that the consumer with lowest price plan will have to pay an about 16.5 times more expensive price.
In addition, those consumers who were using the existing LTE mid-low price plan of 30,000~50,000 KRW are being forced to choose the lowest price plan of 5G, the 50,000 KRW plan, so they will have to pay 20,000~40,000 KRW more per person per month, or 80,000~160,000 KRW per household of 4 persons, which will add to the burden of the household communication expenses by that amount. Therefore, we suspect that the Ministry of Science and ICT has hastened to approve the price plan after being lured by the “World’s First Commercialization of 5G” and has set price plans which do not match the circumstances of consumers.
Three telecommunications companies have shown a good operating income ratio of 8%, on average, for the past three years, or roughly three trillion KRW
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