Telecom customers annoyed by subsidy math

Mobile phone subsidies offered since Monday are already stirring controversy as customers discover that the subsidy amount is not based on one’s total phone bill, but rather a selective calculation of items. Only basic charges, voice calls and wireless data fees are included in calculating average monthly fees from which subsidy levels are set, according to the Ministry of Information and Communication and the nation’s three mobile services providers. However, text messages ― each costing 30 won ― and more than 300 additional services such as caller-ID and overseas phone calls are excluded, regardless of how much the users have spent. And no one ― except for the mobile carriers and the government ― expected such pricing tactics. As a result, customers are getting smaller subsidies than they expected when they buy new handsets. A 29-year-old company worker named Lee Yoon-seok said he was shocked to discover he was only getting a discount of 60,000 won ($61.50) rather than the 120,000 won he had estimated. Mr. Lee had subscribed to the same mobile provider for over six years, paying average monthly bills of 70,000 won. A clerk from the sales agency he visited said services other than phone calls accounted for a large portion of his monthly bill. The additional services were excluded in the monthly fee calculation because different pricing levels for additional services among the mobile service providers complicated policy negotiations, explained government and company officials. However, Park Jeong-seok, head of the Mobile Consumers Union, said, “The younger generation tends to use more additional services rather than just making voice phone calls.” It is unfair not to take them into account, he argued. by Seo Ji-eun