Moon promises to lower mobile rates
New administration to create committee on tech revolution
The new government is expected to introduce sweeping changes in the information technology (IT) industry.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is expected to dramatically change people’s lives and new President Moon Jae-in has focused on the nation’s need to stage a full-court press for the global trend.
The most attention-grabbing IT policy for laymen, among others, will be whether the new government will finally lower mobile rates. This has been an issue in every presidential election, but former heads of state failed to keep their word.
To reduce household telecom expenses, Moon will seek to remove the basic monthly mobile phone rate of 11,000 won ($9.69).
According to Moon, the basic monthly fee was designed to support the installation of expensive mobile communications networks, but domestic wireless operators have completed investments on these.
During the campaign, he claimed that consumers face excessive fees, while cellular carriers continue to chalk up record profits. According to him, the average household spends 124,500 won per month on mobile fees.
Based on the belief that the high telecom fee is due to the high cost of mobile data services, the new government is also likely to require public entities to provide free Wi-Fi services.
Also, Moon will immediately abolish the controversial law to put a legal cap on subsidies on new phones provided by manufacturers or service operators. The law, aimed at preventing excessive competition, will expire this October.
Moon and critics have pointed out that the subsidy ban makes new phones up to 21 percent more expensive here than in other nations.
As for the global industrial transformation, his preparation boils down to the creation of a presidential committee on the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It will aim at job creation and preparations for the technology-driven industrial movement.
In addition, Moon will pursue a so-called “21st Century New Deal” policy that will set up infrastructure for futuristic technologies like driverless cars and smart cities. A smart city is an urban development concept to integrate high tech in a secure fashion to manage the assets of the city.
To encourage life-long education on software, the government will foster 10,000 software experts in elementary, middle and high schools over the next five years.
Moon will also introduce a negative regulation system, under which entrepreneurs can do whatever they want to do if the law does not clearly prohibit it.
Likewise, the government will focus on getting rid of ActiveX and public certification systems that were major hurdles for brisk online transactions and the development of the info-tech industry.
“There will be no more ActiveX on government websites. The new websites of the government and public bodies will support the no plug-in policy,” Moon said.
ActiveX, which controls and protects users’ computers, works only on Microsoft Windows platforms, such as Internet Explorer. Thus, users of other web browsers or mobile devices cannot access websites not based on Microsoft’s technology.