Plans by telecommunications companies to charge internet service subscribers by how much they use the internet is the object a public outcry. Perhaps having realized that the situation was not going to be an easy one, KT president Yi Yong Gyeong recently argued on his personal blog for the need to do so.
KT and other companies are saying that it is only some among internet users who are virtually monopolizing it, and that those parties are intensifying the burden for enlarging the network. They want to correct the imbalance by charging users according to time online or bandwidth.
That, however, is passing on responsibility to users. The current fee system is not a purely one of set charges. Basically, users are charged according to the maximum speed they are able to enjoy. On the internet "speed" refers to the amount of bandwidth that can be transferred in a given amount of time, and so users are in a way already charged according use. The problem is that the kinds of services you can use at each speed, so the change would not have the effect of having heavy users pay more for usage. There is, therefore, already room to correct the imbalance with more diverse services within the current fee system.
That is not the only problem. Companies brought the lack of confidence people have in them upon themselves. KT charges the same for VDSL as it does for ADSL, when VDSL is at leat 50 percent faster. Its "ntopia" service is available to only certain users and is more than 12 times faster than ADSL, but even less expensive than KT's "ADSL Premium." The fee schedules at other companies are pretty similar.
Over the long term it makes the most sense to break down the fee schedule according to bandwidth, but first there must be ample consideration for the social and economic affects the changes would bring about. If they start to charge according to time and bandwidth in the current situation entertainment service industries such as gaming, which owe the country's high-wired climate for their development, will likely suffer serious consequences. Whether the move would hurt the mass-beneficiary nature of the internet must also be looked at. It is for these reasons that it is fortunate Communication and Information Minister Chin Dae Je announced on Friday that the idea needs to be studied carefully, since he has long been a supporter of the changes sought by internet service providers.
The Hankyoreh, 9 April 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Hasty Ideas About Charging by Bandwidth |
