Synopsis
On March 12, South Korea's antitrust authority announced fines of 114 billion won ($78.5 million) against three major mobile carriers for alleged collusion in mobile number portability. The Fair Trade Commission aims to enhance competition and reduce communication costs.Key Takeaways
- South Korea's FTC fines three major carriers.
- Fines total 114 billion won ($78.5 million).
- Collusion aimed at controlling MNP market.
- Daily MNP transfers dropped significantly.
- FTC seeks to enhance market competition.
Seoul, March 12 (NationPress) South Korea's antitrust regulator announced on Wednesday that it will impose fines totaling 114 billion won (approximately US$78.5 million) on the nation's three leading mobile carriers for suspected collusion in the area of mobile number portability (MNP).
SK Telecom Co., recognized as the industry leader, faces a fine of 42.7 billion won, while KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. are being fined 33 billion won and 38.3 billion won, respectively, as reported by the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) via the Yonhap news agency.
The FTC alleges that these companies have been closely monitoring the net changes in MNP transfers daily to uphold a nearly uniform distribution of customers switching carriers from November 2015 to September 2022.
They manipulated daily transfer figures through sales incentives, which are payments directed at distribution networks and customers switching carriers under MNP, to manage market share and restrict competition.
The regulator emphasized that these companies had conspired to hinder competition among themselves in the MNP sector, given that the mobile subscription market in the country is already saturated with minimal new subscribers.
As a consequence of this collusion, the net daily changes in MNP transfers fell from around 3,000 per day in 2014 to just 200 in 2016, according to the FTC.
Additionally, the overall total of daily MNP transfers plummeted from 28,800 in 2014 to 7,200 in 2022.
"By uncovering this seven-year-long collusion, we believe this will lead to heightened competition and reduced household communication costs," a FTC official stated. "The watchdog has committed to ongoing monitoring of market practices to promote fair competition."
In related news, the monthly mobile data traffic on fifth-generation (5G) networks is projected to exceed 1 million terabytes for the first time in December, following a spike in news viewership after President Yoon Suk Yeol's unexpected martial law declaration.
The utilization of this high-speed network has remained above 900,000 TB since April, reaching 996,782 TB in October, as per data from the Ministry of Science and ICT.
