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Report claims government will assess three candidates; reserves right to reject all of them.
South Korea could unveil a fourth mobile operator this week, provided a suitable candidate emerges.
Yonhap reported over the weekend that the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) has assembled a panel of 16 experts to assess the three candidates: Sejong Telecom, K Mobile, and Quantum Mobile.
The prospective market entrants will be judged on their financial, service, and technological capabilities, as well as their plans to safeguard customers’ privacy, the report said. Representatives will also be required to attend hearing procedures.
MSIP has also reserved the right to not select any of the three candidates if none of them are deemed worthy.
The decision to facilitate a new market entrant was taken in May 2015. MSIP hopes to stimulate greater competition to the country’s big three operators – SK Telecom, KT Corp and LG Uplus – in a bid to lower the price of mobile services for consumers.
In order to lower the barrier to entry, the government has considered giving the new player preferential treatment in future spectrum allocations, and permitting it to deploy a nationwide network in phases, rather than all at once.
