SK Telecom, the nation’s largest telecom operator, is to suspend its operations from Saturday, as LG Uplus, the smallest mobile carrier, will resume its business on the same day.

The nation’s three telecom operators SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus have faced business suspensions on rotation for doling out excessive and illegal smartphone subsidies to attract new customers.

For the last 21 days when SK Telecom was solely doing business, around 120,000 users switched their mobile carriers to get new smartphones. It was around 5,000 on average a day, one-sixth from the previous month.

Instead of providing subsidies, the telecom operators have zeroed in on providing new services and products such as diverse subscription plans to win back users.

Further, the three telecoms agreed to have “a joint monitoring group” to voluntarily control mobile carriers to stabilize the telecommunications market. Industry sources expect that illegal subsidies may be rooted out from the market as the government has shown strong willingness to regulate violated companies.

The telecom minister told the three CEOs last month that “The government will impose strong fines on companies and CEOs if they continue to doll out illegal subsidies during the suspension period.”

(shinjh@heraldcorp.com)