Ouch!!!!
10/28 18:27
SK Telecom, Rivals Banned From Signing New Customers (Update1)
By Ian King
Seoul, Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- SK Telecom Co., KT Freetel Corp. and LG Telecom Ltd. were banned from signing up customers for as long as a month for using handset subsidies to compete for new business.
SK Telecom, South Korea's largest cell-phone service provider, won't be allowed to recruit new customers for 30 days, the Ministry of Information and Communication said in a statement. KT Freetel, the second-largest, and LG Telecom will be banned for 20 days, it said.
SK and rivals in Asia's third largest cell phone market were banned from paying money to sales outlets to subsidize purchases of new phones in June 2000. Since then, they have often been fined for breaking the rule. The government implemented the ban after deciding Koreans changed their cell phones too often, a waste of national resources.
``Even after orders to stop and fines, they have repeated their illegal behavior,'' the government statement said.
KT Corp., which controls KT Freetel and acts as a sales agent for the unit, was also banned from signing up new subscribers for 10 days, the statement said |
