According to the OECD Digital Economy Outlook 2015 released on July 15, the mobile charges paid in Korea rank eighth to 19th among those of the 34 OECD member countries, depending on the amount of voice calls and mobile data provided. The average of the charges is approximately 30 percent less than the average of other OECD countries.
In addition, Korea fell in the overall rankings by country when compared to the rankings that the OECD announced two years ago. The OECD provides PPP exchange rate-based data on the level of mobile charges by country every two years by finding optimum calling plans in view of voice call, text message, and mobile data use.
The organization compares the charges by using a five-section table considering average usage and other factors. Korea belongs to Group 5, which assumes 188 minutes of voice calls, 140 text messages, and two gigabytes of mobile data per month. In that group, the charges in Korea are 33 percent cheaper than the OECD average. The percentage reaches 38 percent when it comes to a calling plan providing 50 minutes of voice calls and 100 MB of mobile data.
Korea ranked second from the bottom among 12 countries in the comparison of the prices of package services for broadband Internet connections, wired telephony, and TV and ranked second from the bottom among 11 countries in the comparison covering the package services to which mobile is added.