Household mobile service fee in data oriented era, change to ¡®Digital culture fee¡¯ needed
Jung Yoon Hee | yuni@ | 2017-03-24 10:03:50

Faster Presidential Election clock, Populism to hinder 5G future- ¡®Household mobile service fee¡¯ concept shall be changed in data oriented era

We are living in data oriented era. It``s been a long time since we just sent voice calls and text messages from a cell phone. It is now common everyday to listen to music, watch TV, play games, shop, and handle banking on a smart phone. Many respondents mentioned that they could give up reading (47.2%), drinking (44.7%), snacking (43.6%) and watching movies (41.0%) to use mobile services. Consumers`` interest in and use of telecommunication services can only be focused on data. With the availability of a variety of services through smartphones, user benefits and value continue to grow. This is expected to be more so in the age of the fifth generation (G) mobile communication, where data usage is expected to increase greately.

In fact, the communication fee charged to consumers is decreasing every year, while communication capacity such as voice calls and data are increasing. According to Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, data usage per person surged from 938MB in 2012 to 4356MB last year. Voice call usage also increased from 168 minutes in 2012 to 240 minutes last year.


Meanwhile, the cost of communication services announced by the National Statistical Office has dropped from KRW 145,500 in 2012 to KRW 124,500 last year. According to the Information and Communication Policy Research Institute survey, the utility value per subscriber of mobile communication services is KRW 102,376 per month, which is twice the average pay rate of KRW 51,100 per month. Utility value increased by 25.7% compared with 2009.

This trend is reflected in the voice of the need to reestablish the current communication cost concept. Some point out that ¡®The 5G era is approaching, but the communication cost classification system is staying at 2G.¡¯ It is argued that comprehensive consideration should be given to the benefit of providing mobile service costs to consumers rather than simply approaching them from a cost perspective. Especially, the mobile service industry argues that it is necessary to prepare for a rational 4th industrial revolution instead of repeating the controversial contraction of consumable mobile service costs while the election race is in full swing. While ``Mobile service fee reduction`` has become a hot topic every election, it is claimed that it neglects the consumer convenience provided by mobile services.

Currently, Korea``s mobile service statistics standards follow the UN``s ¡®COICOP¡¯. The concept of communication is composed of communication service (mobile communication, landline, internet), communication equipment (cellular phone, etc.), and postal service. However, in the case of communication, entertainment, and culture, the boundaries between the devices have become increasingly vague due to the emergence of new devices and the development of Internet services. There have already been discussions on the reorganization of COICOP in other countries, mainly by international organizations such as the UN. The proposal for the provisional amendment of COICOP was said to have incorporated entertainment and culture into the information system, which was previously limited to ``mobile service``.

There is a movement to reestablish the concept of household communication fee and to introduce the concept of ¡®Digital culture fee¡¯ (tentative name) in Korea. The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future planning has been conducting policy research since last year to reestablish the concept of household communication expenses in data oriented environments. The Korea National Statistical Office (KNSO) is preparing for the revision of COICOP-K, the Korean version of COICOP, aiming for the first half of 2019 to meet the global revision trend. The National Assembly has been actively discussing the policy debate on the concept of communication cost in the beginning of last month.

Kim Yong-jae, head of the KISDI Communication Policy Group, mentioned, ¡®We need to improve the statistical system to redefine the concept of household communication cost and to find objective measurable indicators such as the amount of content usage and traffic growth. We need to improve the mid to long term classification system by reflecting mobile service usage purpose and usage status change.¡¯

By Jung Yoon Hee yuni@


[ copyright ¨Ï The Digitaltimes ]