LG Uplus opened a budget phone specialty brand store at E-MART to secure customers.
LG Uplus said on the 3rd that it opened an "Budget Phone Plus" store at E-MART on the 1st. Budget Phone Plus is a budget phone–only store set up for customers who want offline consultations. Customers can receive basic customer service (CS), including plan guidance and activation consultations, plan changes, temporary suspension, ownership changes, and loss reports.
Budget Phone Plus stores are currently operating at nine locations nationwide, including five in the greater Seoul area. In the greater Seoul area, they are available at Seoul Wolgye (Traders), Seoul Wangsimni, Hanam, Suwon (Traders), and Incheon Yeonsu; outside the area, they are available at Daejeon Dunsan, Daegu Manchon, Gwangju, and Busan Myeongji (Traders).
LG Uplus plans to increase the number of stores to which it applies this model based on customer response and operating performance.
At the stores, customers can subscribe to five exclusive plans depending on the data allowance configuration. Representative plans include one that provides 100GB of data per month for 28,790 won (speed limited to 5 Mbps after depletion) and one that provides 5GB per day (speed limited to 5 Mbps after depletion).
Customers who activate service at a Budget Phone Plus store receive a 10,000-won Shinsegae gift certificate and a free USIM or eSIM.
Through Budget Phone Plus stores, LG Uplus aims to resolve inconveniences in the budget phone usage process, which had been centered online, and to ensure that even first-time budget phone customers can easily receive guidance on plans and service details through offline consultations.
Park Dae-yong, head of the MVNO business at LG Uplus, said, "Budget Phone Plus is a space to supplement customer touchpoints for small and midsize budget phone companies that had difficulty providing offline consultations," adding, "We will expand store operations in a way that helps both customers and budget phone operators."