At the end of Jul., the abolition of the "Act on the Improvement of Distribution Structure of Mobile Communication Devices" (the handset distribution law) took effect, but phone purchase support payments only inched up, prompting criticism that the intent of scrapping the law has been undermined.
According to an analysis of a subsidy status survey submitted by the Korea Communications Commission to Rep. Choi Su-jin of the Science. ICT. Broadcasting. and Communications Committee (People Power Party) on the 9th, the support payments mobile carriers provided to device buyers averaged 750,000 won as of last month after the abolition of the handset distribution law. That is only about an 80,000 won increase from 669,000 won in device subsidies in Feb. this year.
Compared with the average support payments of 730,000 won during the overheated competition in the telecom market caused by the aftermath of the SKT hacking incident in Jun., just before the law was abolished, the increase is only 20,000 won. The Korea Communications Commission is using a "mystery shopping" method in which investigators visit telecom retail stores posing as actual consumers to compile sample quotes for support payments.
By month, support payments rose from ▲ Feb. 669,000 won ▲ Mar. 662,000 won ▲ Apr. 682,000 won ▲ May 699,000 won ▲ Jun. 733,000 won, then ▲ Jul. 758,000 won ▲ Aug. 747,000 won ▲ Sep. 750,000 won, showing that after the law was abolished in Jul., the pace of increase actually slowed.
However, while the average support payments at mobile phone stores in the greater Seoul area were 690,000 won early this year and 630,000 won in non-capital regions, after the law took effect, they were 750,000 won in the capital area and around 740,000 won outside the capital as of last month, narrowing the gap.
By carrier, LG Uplus averaged 757,000 won in support payments, the highest, followed by KT at 755,000 won and SKT at 739,000 won. From Feb. through last month, average support payments by model were 840,000 won for iPhone, 740,000 won for Galaxy premium models, and 420,000 won for Galaxy midrange models.