Residual data futures and carry-over restrictions ‘leftovers’
#An office worker who uses a 5G pricing plan for LG Uplus, which costs nearly 70,000 won (approx. He has at least 20GB of data left every month, but only 2GB of data can be sent to his acquaintances. As his family can only use up to 4GB of data, most of the data is lost.
#B, an office worker in his 50s who uses unlimited pricing plan of SK Telecom, is experiencing similar inconveniences. He distributed 60GB of data to his daughter every month through “T Family Gathering Data,” but when his pricing plan changed from LTE to 5G after replacing his smartphone, the function was no longer available. The data sharing function varies depending on the pricing plan and the more restricted 5G becomes. Eventually, his daughter switched to a more expensive 5G pricing plan.
It is pointed out that even if you want to give or carry over the data left over every month to your family or acquaintances, it is practically impossible to use it due to the mobile carrier policy. With the Lee Jae-myung government pledging to improve related matters, attention is being paid to whether it will lead to actual policy changes.
According to the telecommunications industry on the 30th, three mobile carriers, SK Telecom, KT, and LG U+, have placed various restrictions on data carryover and gift functions. KT is the only company that can carry over data. This applies only to some pricing plan (LTE Basic, Y Basic, 5G Slim pricing plan, etc.), and most pricing plan have been blocked from carrying over data.
The ability to present data to family members and acquaintances is actually limited. LG U+ allows up to 4GB of family transmission and up to 2GB of family members even for users of the 5G Premier Plus pricing plan, which costs 105,000 won per month. Users of the more expensive 5G Signature and Premier Super pricing plan (115,000 won) can also send up to 60GB and 50GB of data to family members, respectively. The pricing plan that can be shared is also limited to some users.
Through Family Box, KT allows its 5G and LTE customers to send up to 2GB per month to family members and acquaintances. This is only for combined product subscribers.
SK Telecom will also be able to share up to 2GB of data per month through “T-Family Gathering Data.” Up to 80GB of data can be shared among family members through “T-Family Gathering Data,” but this service is currently not available to 5G pricing plan subscribers.
Critics pointed out that such restrictions infringe on consumer rights. This is the background of discussions on improvement at the National Assembly. At the time of the 21st National Assembly in 2022, Rep. Kim Sang-hee (Democratic Party of Korea) proposed a revision to the Telecommunications Business Act, which allows the data to be carried over and shared with subscribers of other telecommunications companies. However, the bill failed to pass the National Assembly’s threshold.
This year, the situation is quite different from the past. President Lee Jae-myung has pledged to revise the system so that he can choose to carry over the remaining data or give gifts. In fact, the National Planning Committee is expected to announce an implementation plan that embodies the pledge next month.
The telecommunications industry argues that “pricing plan design and network traffic stability issues should be considered comprehensively,” but civic groups protest. Han Seok-hyun, head of the YMCA’s civic broadcasting office in Seoul, said, “Data carryover and gifts are consumers’ self-rescue measures for insufficient data provision,” adding, “There is little pricing plan to provide adequate data for the price right now. Government policies should focus on increasing user welfare.”
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