toclair@ittimes.co.kr
According to Minister Yoo Young-hwan's announcement that was made on September 19, 2007, SK took the initiative to start 50% discounted service for calls between its customers. In return, the basic fee was to be raised. While the registration fee for SK Telecom would stay the same, it is already 83% higher than KTF or LG Telecom.
Since SK Telecom is the current market leader in Korea, its decision sparked totally unexpected reactions. Like crabs in a barrel, other companies are attempting to keep SK from reaching for the top of the barrel. Seoul YMCA and other non profit organizations responded to SK's intra-network policy and said: "It is rather insulting how SK is playing with telecom customers by increasing the basic fee and registration fee, pretending to give privileges only to its users. In the end, SK Telecom is still on top." SK telecom in fact will gain 500 billion won in profits simply by increasing the basic fee.
LG Telecom and KTF expressed rage as well stating that this is part of SK's continuous strategy to monopolize the telecom market. "SK Telecom is an obvious ruler in the Korean telecommunication market," LGT spokesman continued: "A ruler's initiative in intra-network policy can cause a great many side effects like monopolization and disruption of the economic structure." KTF also expressed complaints since SK Telecom left them with no choice.
