The Dantong Act is about to be abolished after 10 years… Is there an effect in reducing communication costs?

by times news cr

Expected plenary session to be processed on the 30th… The subsidy disclosure system disappears
It is unclear whether the burden on consumers will be reduced… Telecommunication market saturation, AI investment focus

Citizens are passing by a mobile phone store in Seoul on the afternoon of the 22nd. 2024.2.22 News 1

The bill to abolish the Mobile Communication Device Distribution Act (the bill to abolish the Act on the Improvement of the Distribution Structure of Mobile Communications Terminal Devices) is expected to disappear after 10 years. At the time of its introduction, expectations that it would reduce the burden on consumers disappeared, and instead, it was pointed out as one of the causes of the burden of communication costs, leading to its abolition.

According to the ICT industry on the 22nd, the bill to abolish the Short Communication Act is expected to be processed at the plenary session of the National Assembly on the 30th. There was also a prediction that it would be difficult to process the abolition of the Dantong Act within the year amidst the impeachment situation. However, after the impeachment bill against President Yoon Seok-yeol was passed, it passed the threshold of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly on the 17th, speeding up the process within the year.

The Dantong Act was introduced in October 2014 to correct discrimination among consumers whose purchase prices differ depending on subscription type, region, and time, such as large subsidies provided at specific dealerships. However, it was pointed out that in the 10 years since the law was implemented, the situation in the telecommunications industry has changed and the burden on consumers has increased as competition among telecommunication companies has decreased.

If the abolition of the Mobile Communications Act is passed, the publicly announced subsidies and subsidy cap (up to 15% of the publicly announced subsidy) for the three telecommunication companies will disappear. However, the optional contract discount is transferred to the Telecommunications Business Act and maintained. The purpose of the abolition of the Mobile Communications Act is that as subsidy restrictions are lifted, telecommunication companies will allocate more subsidies to consumers, thereby reducing the purchasing burden on consumers.

However, even if the Telecommunications Act is abolished, it is unclear how much the burden of communication costs on consumers will be reduced. This is because the telecommunications market is already saturated, and it is unclear how much subsidies will be released by telecommunications companies that are focusing on discovering new businesses such as artificial intelligence (AI).

One industry official said, “The current environment has changed greatly from the time when there was no short service law. “The purpose of abolishing the Mobile Communications Act is to reduce the purchase price of terminals, but it is unlikely that telecommunication companies will be able to spend huge amounts of money to acquire one subscriber like they used to.”

Another industry official said, “With the telecommunication market already solidified, we need to see whether telecommunication companies can increase subsidies as they did in the past. Even if the short-term communication law is eliminated, it is unclear how much consumer benefit will be achieved.”

Some in the industry say that it is more effective to return benefits to consumers through AI services and membership expansion rather than increasing subscribers by providing subsidies in an already saturated telecommunications market.

Another industry insider said, “The abolition of the short-term service law is meant to encourage people to buy as much as they did in the past, but that is not the case. “The performance is good, so there is no problem even if you use it for 4 years, and it is also competitive,” he said, predicting that there will be no major changes even if the Single Tong Act is abolished.

(Seoul = News 1)

Hot news now

You may also like

Leave a Comment