Mr. A, an office worker in his 40s, paid 138,320 won in mobile communication charges last month.
Looking at the details, the monthly subscription was the highest at 90,000 won (excluding VAT). This is because I chose the ‘5G unlimited plan’ from the beginning because I make frequent calls and use a lot of data. The terminal installment included in the fee was 44,000 won. It is a whopping 32% of the total fee. I purchased the Samsung Electronics smartphone ‘Galaxy Note 20 Ultra’ on a 36-month installment plan, but I still have to pay for 5 more months.
Recently, Samsung and Apple introduced new products, so I thought about replacing my smartphone, but soon gave up. This is because the burden of communication costs will increase if you purchase a new product that costs more than 1 million won.
It was found that 3 out of 10 Koreans spend more than 80,000 won on average monthly telecommunication bills. Additionally, it was found that the burden of communication costs is increasing as terminal prices are rising rapidly.
The Korea Consumer Agency announced on the 13th that as a result of an online survey conducted last June on 1,500 4G ( LTE ) and 5G rate plan subscribers nationwide over the age of 20, the average monthly communication fee expenditure per person was 65,867 won. This includes terminal installments, content and additional service usage fees, etc.
By spending range, 40,000 to 60,000 won was the largest at 27.2%. This was followed by less than 40,000 won (23.9%), 60,000 to 80,000 won메이저놀이터 (20.1%), more than 100,000 won (17.1%), and 80,000 to 100,000 won (11.7%). This means that about 2 out of 10 people spend more than 100,000 won per month on communication expenses.
Household communication costs are largely calculated by adding up the costs of communication services (communication fees) and communication equipment (terminals). Rising smartphone prices are considered one of the factors that have increased the burden of communication costs. According to the Korea Telecommunications Operators Association ( KTOA ), the average price of a domestic mobile phone device last year was KRW 837,315, a 51% increase compared to KRW 554,713 in 2016, six years ago.
An official from the telecommunications industry said, “If you look at the household trend data from Statistics Korea, you can see that the increase in terminal costs (7.6%) from 2020 to 2022 is greater than the increase in communication fee costs (4.7%).” He added, “In the Korean market, the proportion of premium smartphone sales is high. “Considering that it is high, the price of the terminal can be seen as a major variable affecting the increase in household communication costs,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the Korea Consumer Agency’s overall consumer satisfaction with the three mobile communication companies was found to be SK Telecom’s highest. The overall satisfaction level of the three mobile communication companies was 3.42 points. By company, SKT had the relatively highest score of 3.51 points, followed by LG U+ (3.38 points) and KT (3.28 points). Comprehensive satisfaction is the sum of ▲3 major sector satisfaction and ▲comprehensive satisfaction, which are calculated as a weighted average of service quality, product, and experience satisfaction.