Data giveaway planned by telephone companies to fight inflation

Logos of Korea's three telecom companies shown at a retail store in Seoul [NEWS1]

Korea's three major wireless carriers said Wednesday they will grant free additional mobile data to all of their customers next month in a bid to join the government-led campaign to help people lighten burdens amid rising inflation.

SK Telecom will give 30 gigabytes of data free to 3G, LTE and 5G users 19 years or older in March, allowing people to stream music for 300 hours and watch high-definition videos for 30 hours.

Users of KT and LG Uplus will be also offered similar data packages free of charge.

The companies will also come up with mid-tier, more affordable and diversified 5G data plans for their high-speed mobile network subscribers.

There have been growing calls for intermediate data plans in the country, as only two 5G data plans are currently available for light and heavy users.

The moves come as the government has been gearing up its efforts to ease people's financial burdens by freezing railroad, public transportation and utility fees amid high-flying heating bills, interest rates and inflation.

In a meeting earlier in the day, President Yoon Suk Yeol called on the communications and financial industries to actively take steps to contain prices

Yonhap