Telco 'Roaming Service' differentiates itself

Three mobile telecommunication companies are strengthening their roaming services during the summer vacation season. In order to catch the recent surge in demand for overseas travelers, they are trying to differentiate themselves from other companies.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Incheon International Airport Corporation, and Korea Airport Corporation on the 10th, a total of 46.02 million passengers on international flights from domestic and foreign airlines departed and arrived from domestic airports in the first half of this year, up 7.6 percent from 42.27 million in the first half of last year. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the number is about 470,000 (1 percent) higher than 45.56 million in the first half of 2019, the highest in the first half of the year.

This surge in overseas travelers is moving carriers actively in that it is directly related to roaming demand.

SK Telecom (CEO Yoo Young-sang) has decided to expand the number of its roaming service providers in June. The targets include the European Faroe Islands' Foroya Tele, Austria's A1, France's SFR, and Paraguay's PY Personal.

On top of that, SK Telecom is providing "Club T Roaming" once a month to customers who use baro pricing plan, a roaming plan, and expects to attract additional customers. The benefit lineup includes 1GB of free charging, discounts on One-Pick affiliates such as Daiso and Yogiyo, 30% coupons for Carot's overseas traveler insurance, up to 13% discounts at Shinsegae Duty Free, and 50% preferential exchange rates at Hana Bank's Incheon Airport.

SK Telecom and SK Telink launched an automatic roaming service for the first time in April. SK Telecom's "T in-flight Wi-Fi automatic roaming" allows customers to automatically access the in-flight Wi-Fi without any additional authentication procedures as long as they sign up for the service before boarding.

KT (CEO Kim Young-seop) seeks to differentiate itself by operating a fare structure to reduce customer burden in basic roaming pricing plan. In 64 countries of safe roaming countries including Japan, the U.S., Europe and Oceania, the application is automatically applied without application. In the 64 countries concerned, voice call fee is 1.98 won per second (one minute 119 won), text call fee is 22 won for short text message (SMS), 33 won for long text message (LMS) and 220 won for multimedia message (MMS). This is one-tenth of the existing roaming voice rates.

KT will also continue to promote "Rooming Together with Y." Roaming that one person can share data with up to five lines (KT Mobile) if one person signs up. As there is no line restriction, the user can share data with anyone including his or her family, friends and lovers.

Through Sept. 30, KT will also hold a "Y-sharing" roaming promotion for customers under the age of 34. The promotion offers an additional 1GB of data along with a 40 percent discount compared to existing products. In fact, you can save 17,600 won (17.44 dollars) from 44,000 won (48.31 dollars) in regular price for 8GB products to 26,400 won (28.31 dollars) at discounted prices, and an additional 1GB of data will be provided.

LG U+ (CEO Hong Bum-sik) has reorganized its platform "Al-Dot," which is exclusively for affordable phones, ahead of the summer vacation season. Any U+ affordable phone customer can easily subscribe to the roaming service on the roaming application page within Al-Dot. Existing affordable phone customers had the inconvenience of having to contact the customer center of each affordable phone operator to use roaming products, which was alleviated by the inconvenience.

In the future, LG U+ plans to release a customized roaming pricing plan recommendation service by analyzing roaming usage patterns for each customer. In addition, functions such as immediate payment of charges, number change, and prepaid charging will be added to the integrated customer center "Aldot Care" for affordable phone customers by the end of this year to significantly improve convenience.

In April, LG U+ launched "Asia Roaming Pass," an exclusive roaming product for customers who visit the most popular destinations in Asia. It introduces a new pricing plan priced at 30,000 won and diversifies customer options.

An industry official said, "The demand for roaming is expected to increase during the summer vacation season," adding, "We plan to provide various benefits in line with the increase in roaming demand."

fun3503@chosunbiz.com