KT (Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu) announced that it has expanded “RoamingON”, which applies 0.0018 dollars per second for voice call rates abroad, to Russia and Canada from June 12th following the U.S., China and Japan. As a result, KT ‘RoamingON’ is available in five countries.
With ‘RoamingON’ service, voice calls are up to 98 percent cheaper in Russia and Canada. In the past, when doing voice calls to Russia and Canada, one had to pay a maximum of 4.62 dollars per minute for Russia and up to 2.10 dollars per minute for Canada. However, according to RoamingON application, if someone makes a voice call in Russia or Canada, he/she only pays 0.11 dollars per minute and 1.10 dollars per 10 minutes. RoamingON is automatically applied to all KT subscribers even if they do not apply for it.
KT expects Russia and Canada to be among the RoamingON service countries, benefiting as many customers as possible. In the case of Russia, it is expected that it will greatly reduce the call rate burden of users who go away cheering for the World Cup opening ceremony on June 14th (local time). Travelers who visit the United States and Canada at the same time on a summer vacation can also benefit from voice call rates in both countries.
KT explained that RoamingON, which showed its first line on May 30th, is well received by customers traveling to the U.S., China and Japan. A 38-year-old employee who traveled to Japan during the holiday season in early June, said, “I made a phone call to my family in Japan, but after receiving a text message that the voice call was about 0.092 dollars, I could still use voice call with friends without worrying about the charge bomb.”
In the U.S., China, and Japan where RoamingOn was applied on May 30th, voice calls grew up to twice daily and voice users increased up to 50 percent a day.
“Voice calls in the U.S., China, and Japan are rapidly increasing after applying the RoamingON service. Following Russia and Canada, we will be able to expand rapidly all over the world by 2019, so that all our customers can make free calls to domestic rates anywhere in the world,” said Park Hyun-jin, Head of the telecommunications business unit at KT.
