The Participation Solidarity held a press conference on the morning of the 11th and urged, “Three mobile operators should guarantee consumers a free choice between handsets, LTE and 5G services.” In addition, the act of restricting the subscription to the LTE plan when purchasing a 5G smartphone at an agency is abusing the market dominant position such as Articles 3-2, 19, 1, 23, 1 of the’Exclusive Regulation and Fair Trade Act’. , It was pointed out that it corresponds to abuses due to unfair trading status.
Young-geul Joo, executive member of the People’s Hope Headquarters of the Participation Solidarity, said, “Even though it is not technically impossible to subscribe to LTE with 5G terminals, the three mobile operators are maintaining this policy to maximize profits.” “The key telecommunications service provider has abused its dominant market position.”
In fact, the three mobile carriers are implementing a policy of restricting changes to the LTE plan or imposing a penalty after customers sign up for a 5G plan with a 5G smartphone at their agency.
SK Telecom is operating a service called’Premium Pass 1′. When you change to the LTE plan after 6 months of receiving the disclosure subsidy through the agency and signing up for the 5G plan, you can be exempted from the difference in the disclosure subsidy. Even if you do not subscribe to the service, you cannot change the plan, but there is a burden to settle the difference.
KT can change the LTE plan without penalty after 6 months if he subscribes to 5G with the public support fund, and if it is changed 6 months before, a penalty must be paid. Even if you change it after 6 months, if you change to an LTE plan that is cheaper than 47,000 won per month, the cheapest 5G plan, you will have to refund the difference in the publicly disclosed support fee. LG U+ also has the same conditions.
When signing up for an optional contract, SK Telecom and KT do not have conditions such as restrictions or penalties when changing from 5G to LTE plans. However, LG U+ made it possible to switch from 5G to LTE plan only after 6 months after signing up even if you subscribed with an optional contract rather than a publicly disclosed subsidy.
Earlier, the three mobile carriers changed their policies to allow 5G self-sufficient smartphones to subscribe to the LTE plan from August last year. The restriction on the use of the LTE plan is a result of the government and the National Assembly demanding system improvement. However, it is still pointed out that consumers’ right to choose various rate plans is violated as there is a limit to the rate system conversion for new subscriptions through mobile carrier agencies.
However, carriers are not in the position to limit consumer options. An official from a mobile operator said, “It is a rule to subscribe to a 5G plan according to the terms and conditions for 5G service through a mobile operator.”