Redefine Service and User Concepts in Korean Telecommunication Business Law According to it and Media Service Revolution

The main laws which regulate Korean telecommunication industry are Telecommunication Basic Law and Telecommunication Business Law. But the both laws have been enacted under the market environment where service providers owned their networks only could provide telecommunication services. That is, vertically integrated firms could provide telecommunication services. Therefore it is possible to classify agents in the relevant market into two categories such as service providers and users. However as IT and media technologies (especially IP technology) have been improved, it becomes possible to provide information․telecommunication services without owning network and/or facilities. As a result various business models and market agents are emerged in the telecommunication market. Because of these environmental changes the current Telecommunication Basic Law and Telecommunication Business Law which were enacted under the past environment show limit to regulate today's various business models and agents. For example, the laws failed to regulate new type of service providers because there is no article to regulate them in current laws. Thus regulation failure and unfair regulation between incumbents and new entrants happen. This article tries to redefine telecommunication service and user concepts which are suitable to current and on-coming market environment. This helps market to allocate resource efficiently and grow persistently by clarifying rights and duties of each agent in the market