Handset subsidy ban to be lifted Tuesday
Published: 21 Jul. 2025, 19:05
Updated: 21 Jul. 2025, 19:54
![This file photo taken Jan. 7 shows a mobile phone store in Seoul promoting the planned lifting of the decadelong ban on handset subsidies. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/07/21/1c98cd56-f21d-48a2-bc79-a4004efe1030.jpg)
This file photo taken Jan. 7 shows a mobile phone store in Seoul promoting the planned lifting of the decadelong ban on handset subsidies. [YONHAP]
The decade-long controversial ban on handset subsidies will be lifted starting next week as part of efforts to lower the financial burden on consumers for communications services, the Ministry of Science and ICT said Thursday.
The Mobile Device Distribution Improvement Act, which currently prohibits mobile carriers from providing excessive discounts or illegal subsidies to customers, will be nullified beginning July 22, according to the ministry.
The National Assembly passed a motion to scrap the act late last year.
The ban, implemented in 2014, was designed to bring transparency to the market by curbing subsidies that exceeded legal limits and to foster competition among mobile carriers.
But the policy has been criticized for restricting healthy competition by preventing mobile carriers from offering legal subsidies, consequently limiting opportunities for customers to buy cell phones at lower prices.
Yonhap
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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