Mobile carriers imposed record fine for illegal 5G subsidies

SEOUL, July 8 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's telecommunications regulator said Wednesday it imposed a record fine of 51.2 billion won (US$46.7 million) on the country's three major carriers -- SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. -- for providing illegal subsidies to subscribers to their 5G network services.

SK Telecom will face the heaviest fine of 22.3 billion won, followed by KT with 15.4 billion won and LG Uplus at 13.5 billion won, respectively, according to the Korea Communications Commission (KCC).

The regulator found that the three carriers had provided massive amounts of subsidies to attract customers to their 5G services, launched locally in April last year.

The record penalty was higher than the previous one of 50.6 billion won imposed on the three carriers in 2018 for similar violations.

The KCC determined the penalty based on its probe into the illicit subsidies that were distributed between April and August last year.

As of the end of May, there were 6.9 million 5G users, accounting for 10 percent of the total 69 million mobile service accounts in the country.

yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
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