A week after the three major mobile carriers resumed their businesses after suspensions, SK Telecom swept the number portability market with aggressive marketing. (image: SKT retailer)
SEOUL, May 30 (Korea Bizwire) – The so-called “Phone Paparazzi policy,” a compensation scheme for citizen reports on the illegal subsidies aimed at attracting new subscribers to mobile phone or broadband Internet services, will be expanded to all retailers across the country. Currently, the reporting system is applicable to online retailers only.
The Korea Association for ICT Promotion announced that it would expand the policy to brick-and-mortar mobile phone retailers starting June. By widening the report categories of the “Paparazzi Report Center” jointly run by mobile carriers including SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus and broadband Internet providers, it will stamp out illegal subsidies for mobile phones and Internet services.
Previously, the report categories were focused on online retailers and big-box retailers which offered more than 270,000 won of subsidies for a mobile phone, more than 220,000 won for the Internet and IPTV and more than 250,000 won for the Internet, IPTV and Internet phone. Now, all the retail channels are to be reported in case of offering excessive subsidies.
However, some criticized that the expansion of the paparazzi scheme will add more damage for the small-sized mobile phone and Internet retailers as the mobile carriers already impose penalties and reduce sales commissions against the offline retailers which were reported by the reward hunters.
The so-called “Phone Paparazzi policy,” a compensation scheme for citizen reports on the illegal subsidies aimed at attracting new subscribers to mobile phone or broadband Internet services, will be expanded to all retailers across the country. (image: The Korea Association for ICT Promotion)
Although the illegal subsidies are coming from the mobile carriers, they, on the contrary, impose 10 million won of maximum penalty to the retailers. Even then, there is a saying that the mobile carriers reduce the penalty if the retailers notify illegal activities of rival companies.
Meanwhile, the paparazzi report center established last September has given out 13 billion won as reward money for 18,317 and 124 cases for excessive mobile phone and broadband Internet subsidies, respectively.
Written by John Choi (johnchoi@koreabizwire.com)
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