Reasons for Proposal
According to the ICT development index released by the International Telecommunications Union after evaluation of ICT accessibility, usability, etc., Korea has always ranked first or second, having maintained its telecommunications infrastructure at the world top-class level.
Recently, however, global content providers have entered the domestic market, causing explosive traffic growth and earning massive profit, but without sharing the burden of network expansion or advancement costs.
As a result, the burden of investment for internet service providers increases, and the service quality for users is lowered, such that Korea’s status as a network power has been diminished.
Given the fact that expansion of video services such as UHD, VR, etc., which cause heavy traffic is predicted in the future, global content providers who do not have to bear the burden of network costs have an unfair advantage over domestic content providers, such that there is concern of takeover of the domestic market by foreign companies, and there is a need to create a fair competition order through legislative amendments that will allow users to stably use high-quality services.
Therefore, this proposal aims to impose a duty on large content providers who meet certain criteria on the number of users, traffic volume, etc., to take managerial, economic and technical measures to maintain the quality of telecommunication services, thereby allowing high-quality telecommunication services to be provided to users.
Also, this proposal aims to prescribe that acts of large content providers such as imposing unreasonable or discriminatory conditions, etc., regarding network use and/or lease, unfairly refusing to enter into agreements or lowering the quality of telecommunication services shall be added as new types of prohibited acts, thereby enabling ex-post regulation.
Details
A. Prescribe that value-added telecommunications business operators who meet the criteria on number of users, traffic volume, etc., prescribed by Presidential Decree, shall take managerial, economic and technical measures to maintain the quality of telecommunication services such as securing appropriate network capacity, etc., to stably provide telecommunication services (Article 32-10, newly inserted)
B. Prescribe that the act of imposing unreasonable or discriminatory conditions, etc., regarding network use and/or lease, unfairly refusing to enter into agreements or lowering the quality of telecommunication services shall be added as new types of prohibited acts (Article 50 (1) 1, 2 and 3, amended; Article 50 (1) 5-3, newly inserted)
C. Enable the Minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning or the Korea Communications Commission to issue corrective orders when value-added telecommunications business operators who meet the criteria for the number of users, traffic volume, etc. prescribed by Presidential Decree fail to take measures to maintain quality (Article 92 (1) 1, amended)
