Line to Mobile Phone Call Rate to Down by 17.7 Percent from Next Month

Line to mobile phone call (LM) rate is likely to go down by 17.7 percent from May 1st.

The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) announced that it decided to drop the LM rate by 17.7 percent from current 19 won per 10 seconds to 15.6 won per 10 seconds at the party-government discussion with New Millennium Democratic Party (NMDP) on the 18th, and put it into operation from May 1st after consulting with the Ministry of Finance and Economy (MOFE).

This rate will apply retroactively from January 1st, and the subscribers can use phones free for the charge they paid already.

As a result, the call rate of a subscriber who has 2 hours of LM call in a month will drop to 11,232 won, 2,338 won less from 13,680 won.

And retroactive application of decreased rate make it possible for subscribers to use 10 minutes` free LM call for 8 months.

Monthly average LM call rate of domestic telephone subscribers will fall to 8,555 won from 10,395 won last year.

Min Won-Ki chief of communication division in MIC explained, “this cut of call rate reduces the burden of a line subscriber by 30,000 won a year. ”

This partial adjustment of call rate resulted from the cost reduction by adjustment of connection fee among the enterprises earlier this month.

NMDP and the government discussed the measure to raise the public phone rate to 80 won from current 50 won per 3 minutes in order to reduce the deficit with no result, and decided to discuss again.

Tae-Han Kim freewill@donga.com