Wireless plans aim to protect teens

Mobile service providers are releasing new services that offer unlimited wireless Internet services for a fixed price, in response to the recent suicide of a middle school student who rang up a 3.7-million-won ($3,828) bill for playing games on his cell phone. Early next month, SK Telecom Co. will begin providing a service that provides members with wireless Internet access for a fixed rate of 30,000 won a month. “For 10,000 won, people can use up to 50,000 won worth of wireless data, and if they use more than that, they can pay 30,000 won for unlimited access,” an SK Telecom representative said. KTF Co. will also launch a similar service early next month in which users will only pay a maximum of 26,000 won regardless of how often they use its wireless Internet service. “We decided to create a maximum-pay because the current payment services, which are simply based on how much you use it, resulted in excessive bills for customers who lacked judgment, especially teenagers,” a KTF representative said. These offers, however, are only for the wireless Internet services ― in other words, the connection costs for when users access mobile content. Regular mobile-phone bills are calculated separately. “[It] became a problem because teenagers were playing mobile games or looking at video clips without their parents’ knowledge,” an industry analyst said, adding that the services would not solve the problem. by Lee Weon-ho