Starting next week, the controversial decade-long ban on handset subsidies will be lifted as part of an effort to reduce consumers’ financial burden for communication services, the Science Ministry announced Thursday.
According to the ministry, the Mobile Device Distribution Improvement Act, which currently prohibits mobile carriers from offering excessive discounts or illegal subsidies to customers, will be nullified on July 22.
The National Assembly passed a motion to repeal the act late last year.
Implemented in 2014, the ban was designed to increase market transparency by curbing subsidies that exceeded legal limits and to foster competition among mobile carriers.
However, critics argued that the policy actually restricted healthy competition by preventing mobile carriers from offering legal subsidies, ultimately limiting consumers’ opportunities to purchase cell phones at lower prices. (Yonhap)
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