Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
decent foothold in the market, but it's still firmly ruled by Samsung and LG. If you have a
3G handset and a roaming deal with your home provider, you'll be able to access 3G net-
works here, but airtime will be expensive, so this can't be advocated as a long-term solu-
tion. Some mobile devices purchased abroad, such as iPhones and iPads, can be used on a
local contract, but will first have to be “unlocked” by a local mobile provider.
Until very recently, phone companies were reluctant to offer foreign nationals anything
but prepaid cellular services out of fear they'd flee the country and renege on contracts.
This has changed, but prospective foreign customers may still find some outlets hesitate
or refuse to sign them up to long-term mobile service plans. Provided you work in South
Korea, there's no real justification for this, and a call to the phone company's customer ser-
vice hotline or expatriate support agencies like the Seoul Global Center will usually result
in any barriers mysteriously vanishing.
SK Telecom, KT, and LG U+ are the three main mobile carriers, and all offer fairly sim-
ilar voice and data service packages that should be available to any resident with a work
visa, local bank account, and identification. Virtually all the new cellular phones on offer in
South Korea are smartphones, and it can be a struggle to find a plain-vanilla mobile.
Signing a mobile phone contract usually entitles the new customer to a free handset or
heavy discounts on flashier models that can be paid for in installments on the phone bill.
Standard smartphone service plans range from around 30,000-90,000 won a month, with
the more expensive plans including more free talk time and text messages and hefty data al-
lowances. Beyond those local calls are billed at about 120 won per minute, data charges run
around 50 won per megabyte, and international tariffs are similar to those on landlines. Re-
ceiving calls is always free. Prepaid phones, for which the customer can buy and replenish
talk (or web browsing) time by purchasing cards, are also widely available and sometimes
easier to source for foreign nationals, but on a per-use basis they work out to be far more
expensive than standard contracts.
While their numbers have dwindled in recent years as the mobile phone renders them ob-
solete, public phones are still fairly common in South Korea, especially along major streets
and in subway stations. They're divided into three kinds: those that take coins, those that
take phone cards, and those that take both. Phone cards are usually available at any con-
venience store or newsstand and come in denominations between 2,000 and 10,000 won.
Local calls are billed at around 20 won per minute. International calls can be made via pub-
lic phones that accept phone and credit cards.
