It is’Netflix Prevention Act’, but the 1% wave of traffic is’Gap Tuk Tuk’… Why?

‘Wave’, a domestic online video service (OTT) that generates 1% of traffic per day on average, is subject to the same regulations as YouTube (Google), which generates 25% of traffic, causing controversy.

Wave is included as a service provider obligated to stabilize services under the Netflix Free Ride Prevention Act (amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Telecommunications Business Act). In the case of Wave, it was included in the target based on the traffic volume for three months at the end of last year, raising concerns that the uncertainty of the domestic content provider (CP) industry has increased.

The Ministry of Science and ICT said on the 18th that “according to the revised Telecommunications Business Act, this year, the obligatory business entity is designated”. Google (25.9%), Facebook (4.8%), Netflix (3.2%), Naver (1.8%), Kakao (1.4%) and Wave (1.18%) were selected as targets. In the future, these operators are obligated to prepare a plan to stably provide telecommunication services. The service must be provided without discriminating against the user’s terminal or Internet network operator (ISP), and measures must be taken in advance to prevent technical errors and traffic from crowding. In addition, online/automatic telephone service should be provided to solve the inconvenience of users.

According to the enforcement decree, the criteria for selecting a target business operator are the number of users and traffic volume. Value-added telecommunications service providers with an average of more than 1 million domestic users per day for three months at the end of the previous year and at least 1% of the total domestic traffic are targeted.

According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, 1% of traffic is about 35,000 people using high-definition (HD) videos all day, or 50 million people using messenger or information search. At the time of the announcement of the amendment to the enforcement decree last year, the five companies that met the conditions were Google, Facebook, Netflix, Naver, and Kakao.

However, during the official counting period from October to December of last year, Wave’s traffic increased, and it was included as a mandatory target company. Kim Nam-cheol, head of the Communications Competition Policy Division of the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, “In the case of Wave, it was at the boundary of the traffic standard (1% of the total traffic volume) that designates the obligatory business operator, but it was selected as the target after meeting the official counting period of October to December. “

For this reason, there are voices in the CP industry that “the standards are still ambiguous and uncertainties are high.” It is pointed out that there is a problem that the target of designation varies depending on the measurement period in a situation where there is a suspicion that the Ministry of Science and ICT has created a ‘1% rule’ to include domestic operators as regulated targets. At the time of the revision of the law, the domestic CP industry raised suspicion that the traffic standard was set at 1% in order to include domestic CPs such as Naver and Kakao. Based on 3%, only overseas CPs are included in the regulation, but at 1%, domestic CPs such as Naver and Kakao are included. At the time, the domestic CP industry expressed concern that “overseas operators will leave the regulation due to the fact that the actual service is being performed in their home country, and only domestic operators will have the effect of imprisonment.”

In this situation, the unexpected wave was included in the target business, and the industry responded that it was embarrassing. An official in the CP industry who requested anonymity said, “It is a problem to put Google, which causes 25% of domestic traffic, and Wave that causes around 1%, within the same regulatory framework, but from the standpoint of domestic CPs, it is not known when they will be included in the regulation. “It is a more serious problem with greater uncertainty.” Another official also said, “From the point of view of a domestic CP, it is necessary to provide information on the total traffic volume so that we can prepare in advance as we do not know when it will be selected as a compulsory service provider.”

Reporter Kim Kyung-jin [email protected]