From April 1, mobile phone users without 010 prefix will not get 3G or LTE service in Korea. (image: David365/flickr)
SEOUL, Korea, April 1 (Korea Bizwire) – From April 1, 3G and LTE mobile phone service users whose phone number doesn’t begins with “010″ (011, 016, 017, 018, and 019) will get no voice and text services any longer.
The number of the unfortunate users is 2,155. That’s because the government’s extended offer to change the number has expired on March 31 after the first deadline on December 31 last year.
Although most of the 2,000-or-so subscribers are away for overseas travels or military service, about 100 are resisting the change intentionally with the aim of suing the telecom service companies for depriving their right to keep the phone numbers.
Some of them are even asking for a large-sized car or cash compensation in exchange for giving up the number. To this, an official with the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning said, “These are frivolous at best and there is no need to respond one by one.”
The number of recalcitrant subscribers was highest for KT at 1,240. But a company official said about 1,200 are those who have not paid their bills and under suspension.
LG U+, which reported there are 470 such customers, also said that it was unable to reach most of the 470 subscribers for up to two months.
SK Telecom said its 445 customers who haven’t changed their numbers to 010 prefix are mostly those with suspended accounts or on overseas roaming.
Written by Sean Chung (schung10@koreabizwire.com)
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