Cell phone services can offer incentives

A government agency decided yesterday to allow mobile service carriers to offer customers rebates for personal digital assistant cell phones and third-generation mobile handsets that support video communication. The Regulatory Reform Committee passed a bill yesterday that will exempt the mobile service carriers from the government ban against such incentives. The exception was made in order to promote cutting-edge, technology-related businesses, the committee said. The cap on rebates for PDA phones is likely to be 25 percent of consumer prices, and for third generation phones, up to 40 percent of prices. PDA phones’ retail prices are currently 800,000 won ($700) to 900,000 won. Three service providers in Korea ― SK Telecom, KTF and LG TeleCom ― said they are considering providing rebates to lure more customers. by Yum Tae-jung