International calls are costing even less

Global roaming is becoming cheaper as mobile firms face new competitors, and yesterday, Hanarotelecom began offering a roaming service about half the price of those firms.
A regulation change allows Hanaro to offer the service to users of unrelated mobile providers. Previously, cell phone users who took their cell phones abroad could only use international phone services from the service provider they were using in Korea.
Users of Hanarotelecom’s roaming phone service can dial an international number without selecting a specific mobile service provider. The company said that the service is available in 24 countries including the United States, Japan and China, and that it plans to expand the number of target countries to over 40.
The new method is much cheaper. An SK Telecom client using SK automatic roaming to make a call from the United States to Korea will pay 1,089 won ($1.16) per minute; a KTF user would pay 1,852 won per minute. Hanarotelecom, however, is offering 550 won per minute for SK Telecom customers and 1,048 won per minute for KTF customers. LG Telecom, which offers automatic roaming in China, charges 1,666 won per minute in that nation, but Hanarotelecom users pay just 886 won.
Hanarotelecom is able to lower roaming fees because it has formed alliances with overseas telecom companies, converting what would otherwise be international calls into local ones.
Even if a user does not subscribe to Hanarotelecom, dialing the company’s somewhat cumbersone connection code before the number will grant the same rates. For SK Telecom customers using automatic roaming, users must dial 0082 before the Korean phone number. When using Hanarotelecom’s connection number the number is 021-5107-8624. Calls made abroad using the service are also billed separately by Hanarotelecom.
The global roaming market has become more competitive with Hanarotelecom offering lower rates, and recently SK Telink, LG Dacom and KT have also began providing similar services. Companies want a share of the roaming market pie because they foresee that the market will amount to 200 billion won this year, and that calls made to Korea from overseas will make up more than 80 percent of all roaming calls.

By Kim Won-bae JoongAng Ilbo [wohn@joongang.co.kr]