Apple announced today like starting from friday iPhone 5 will be available in the offer of mobile phone operators and retailers in South Korea, and the local government warned them traders not to exaggerate with subsidies. The government agency in charge of controlling mobile phone operators has warned them not to offer excessive subsidies to customers interested in buying iPhone 5, because this would be illegal in that Asia.
The Korea Communications Commission (KCC), the nation's top telecom regulator, said Monday that the government agency will punish SK Telecom and KT if they offer illegal subsidies to attract more iPhone 5 customers. The suggested retail price of the 16GB iPhone 5 is 814,000 won. But customers who promise to change carrier can get the phone for about 400,000 won with the subsidies. The two carriers received more than 200,000 pre-orders for the new handset in just two hours after they were made available on Nov. 30, according to KCC officials.
The operators subsidized half of the price of the terminals iPhone 5 for certain customers and the government does not agree with this practice, although 200.000 pre-orders were registered in South Korea in just two hours. Some would assume that the government would be on the side of Samsung through this decision, but if the Korean law specifies that operators are not allowed to make large subsidies, then who can contradict such a thing? To be honest, it seems stupid to me that the government should impose on an operator not to subsidize the price of a product, but this is what is happening in South Korea.
