The government plans to present a policy to attract new mobile operators by the end of June to reduce the burden of household communication costs.
In the meantime, the government has tried to reduce telecommunications costs with MVNOs, but from a long-term perspective, it is necessary to improve the competition situation limited to the three telecommunications companies and to activate competition among operators .
Recently, the three mobile carriers have launched intermediate rate plans to diversify user options and lower rates, but the government believes that such plans are not enough for the government’s wishes.
To this end, the government is in a position to lower barriers to market entry for new operators by easing burdens such as frequency allocation fees and network construction obligations.
On the 17th, Vice Minister Park Yoon-gyu of the Ministry of Science and ICT said, “We are trying to find a 4th mobile carrier because we need an operator that provides innovative services.” “We are looking for innovative companies,” he said.
The reason why the government has been emphasizing the need to alleviate the burden of telecommunications costs is that telecommunications are essential to daily life, just like electricity, water, and gas. According to the Korea Information and Communication Policy Research Institute ( KISDI ), there are more than 70 budget phone operators in the mobile communication market, but 97.3% of the total market sales are accounted for by the three mobile communication companies.
According to the results of last year’s household trend survey announced by the National Statistical Office, telecommunications expenses accounted for 5% of household consumption expenditure. It is slightly lower than education (6.5%) and clothing/shoes (6%), and higher than household goods/household services (4.2%). During the same period, average monthly telecom spending for households with one or more persons was 135,000 won, up 5% from the previous year.
If a family of four pays 30,000 to 50,000 won per person for telecommunications, they will have to spend about 200,000 won a month on telecommunications. In modern society, it is virtually impossible to engage in social activities without using communication services.
Forming a consortium to establish a new mobile operator
(Provided by Image Today)
However, in order for new businesses to emerge, companies with sufficient financial and management capabilities are required to participate. The government started attracting new operators in 2010, but the selection of operators was thwarted seven times due to entry barriers that required an initial investment of about 2 trillion won.
Currently, ‘Mirae Mobile’ is forming a consortium to establish a new telecommunications company with Calum, a plant equipment manufacturing company such as geothermal power generation and LNG , as a major shareholder.
The government believes that in order to continue large-scale investment, new business owners should be composed of companies capable of raising funds between 800 billion won and 1 trillion won. The amount took into account the government’s unprecedented tax support and the reduction in facility investment costs due to the development of 5G access technology.
Mirae Mobile CEO Yun Ho-sang said, “We cannot disclose the company name due to confidentiality agreements with each company, but Taehwa, a mid-sized company, and Callum, a UAM company, are participating as shareholders.” About 50% of the financial shareholder structure has been completed with manufacturers, etc., and agreements on technical cooperation or equipment supply are in progress.”
“In addition to 28GHz, 2.3GHz band frequency is required to build a nationwide network”
Where new operators are preparing, the government needs support policies from six perspectives: entry regulation, frequency allocation and use, network-related regulation, wholesale provision, use system, and handset distribution regulation and support, in order to settle down stably in the saturated telecommunications market. position to do so.
In particular, it is in the position that a 2.3GHz band with a width of 90MHz is needed as an anchor frequency for building a nationwide network along with a bandwidth of 28GHz and 800MHz. Targeting the B2B market, the 28GHz band is operated in the form of self-driving cars, specialized networks for farming and fishing villages, and disaster networks, and the 2.3GHz band is a plan to provide inexpensive nationwide network services.
When Mirae Mobile introduces open LAN technology as a 5G wireless network access technology in the 2.3GH band and builds a cloud-native network system, it can reduce network construction costs with more than twice the frequency efficiency and reduce equipment investment costs by less than half. I see you can
CEO Ho-Sang Yoon said, “We plan to provide rates at 50% of existing telecommunication companies in order to secure competitiveness in early market entry and respond to the government’s telecommunications cost reduction policy.” If it is built, distribution costs can be reduced, so it is possible enough.” He also said ,
“A low-cost and advanced full MVNO or MVNE service is possible through the supply of a dedicated network for affordable phones.”We believe that it will be possible to provide cheap network usage fees and supply and demand contents by cooperating with 토토사이트.
“Needs asymmetric regulation to settle down as a new mobile operator”
(Provided by Image Today)
Prepared operators are hoping for active support from the government, such as easing the burden of frequency allocation fees and regulating asymmetric conditions for network construction. Just as the government supported growth by applying asymmetric regulations to LG U+ , which was a latecomer among the three mobile telecommunications companies, this time, support is needed until new operators secure competitiveness.
In the early 2000s, when SK Telecom occupied more than 50% of the market share and held a dominant position, the government differentiated rates and access fees to secure competitiveness of LG Telecom , the predecessor of LG U+. At the time, SK Telecom was unable to arbitrarily lower or raise the rate due to the rate system authorization system, but LG Telecom was able to flexibly adjust the rate system by applying the reporting system. The access fee differential regulation continued until 2016. Telecommunications companies interconnect each other’s network for telephone connection between subscribers and pay a price. The government calculated a relatively cheap connection fee for LG U+. Hyungnam Moon, a professor at Sookmyung Women’s University Business School, said, “As a way to promote competition in the telecommunications market and ease the burden of communication costs, affordable phones and 4th mobile carriers are constantly being discussed, but we have not been able to succeed with only affordable phones.” “We need to fix the current oligopoly market system.”
The government plans to announce the current status of attracting new businesses and support plans through a report to the president at the end of June. It is expected to include low-cost frequency usage fees, facility investment cost savings using next-generation 5G wireless network access technology, and measures to enhance the competitiveness of rate plans.