Ministry of Science and ICT Launches Meeting to Enhance Competitiveness of Alttel Phones

Analysis of Overseas Cases... Discussion on Improvements

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Su-yeon] The Ministry of Science and ICT announced that it will hold a meeting on the 10th at the Korea Intelligent Information Society Agency to explore measures to strengthen the competitiveness of alttel phone services.

This meeting is a follow-up to the 13th Emergency Economic and Livelihood Meeting held on the 15th of last month. At the first meeting of the "Special Task Force (TF) for Promoting Competition in the Telecommunications Market" held on the 20th of last month, the Ministry of Science and ICT decided to discuss ways to enhance the brand value of alttel phone services to improve their competitiveness. Additionally, at the public forum held on the 2nd to prepare policy measures for promoting competition in the telecommunications market, Park Yoon-kyu, the 2nd Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated, "We will actively prepare measures so that alttel phone operators, who are one axis of service competition, can move beyond being low-cost, small-scale telecom providers and offer differentiated services and economies of scale to compete with the three major telecom companies."

Introduced in 2010, alttel phones have grown to reach 13.06 million subscribers as of January, accounting for 16.9% of the total market. By offering plans more than 30% cheaper than the existing three major telecom companies, they have significantly contributed to reducing household communication expenses. However, the total sales of alttel phones account for only about 5% of the entire mobile communication market, and the number of 5G subscribers was only 175,000 as of January. There is an opinion that alttel phone operators have not yet established themselves as competitive players comparable to the three major telecom companies in the changing telecommunications market.

In particular, issues have been raised such as the lack of price competitiveness and differentiation in alttel phone 5G services, the absence of competitive infrastructure-based operators who can design their own billing systems and plans, the perception of alttel phones as mid-to-low-end brands, and insufficient efforts to protect users.

At this meeting, the Korea Information Society Development Institute will analyze overseas cases where alttel phone businesses are active, such as Germany, Italy, and Ireland, and present problems in the alttel phone market that have been raised by the industry and experts so far. The meeting will listen to opinions from the alttel phone industry and experts on agendas to secure the competitiveness of alttel phones, including △ activation of alttel phone 5G △ rigidity issues in wholesale price calculation standards △ enhancement of alttel phone operators' responsibility △ measures to achieve economies of scale for alttel phones △ concentration of market share in subsidiaries of telecom companies. Opinions and suggestions presented at the meeting to strengthen alttel phone competitiveness will be discussed in depth through the "Special Task Force (TF) for Promoting Competition in the Telecommunications Market."