SK Telecom business ban， latest in series of sanctions to mobile carriers in Kor

SK Telecom started its week long business ban on Thursday， after giving illegal levels of discounts on mobile phone handsets to new customers.
This is the latest in a series of similar bans on mobile network carriers over the last few years... but how effective are they？
Kwon Jang－Ho takes a closer look.
In January SK Telecom， Korea′s biggest mobile network operator， gave 2050 new customers an average of 228，000 won， or roughly 190 U.S. dollars in cash back， on new mobile handsets.
This resulted in the Korean Communications Commission imposing a fine of nearly 20 million U.S. dollars and a seven day business ban， which started on Thursday.
The ban restricts SK Telecom from signing up new customers.
Bans and fines for illegal phone subsidies have been a common occurrence in Korea over the last few years.
The biggest came in March 2014， when all three of the country′s major mobile phone operators， SK Telecoms， KT Mobile and LG U－Plus， were given 45－day business bans and a collective total of 11 million dollars in fines.
The saturation of the phone market has been cited as the reason for the continued illegal promotions.
There were over 57 million phone contracts signed last year， more than the total population of Korea， which is at just over 50 million.
With market growth minimal， mobile phone carriers are left scrapping to win over each other′s customers.
A new law， called the Mobile Distribution Act， went into effect last year to curb the excessive discounts.
Although it cooled competition among the companies and the number of people switching between telecoms decreased，... sanctions such as the latest ban on SK are said to lack enough impact to stop illegal subsidies.
″SK Telecom is estimated to lose around 30，000 new customers over the next week. When you have 25 million customers already， 30，000 is not that significant... If it had been before the new telecoms act， the loss would have been far greater.″
Kwon Jang－Ho， Arirang News.