A new fund for the media and telecommunications sectors that could be worth around 1.3 trillion won (US$1.12 billion) may be used to fuel smartphone and related wireless technologies, government and the ruling party officials said Monday.

Sources said the understanding was reached Thursday during a meeting of officials from country’s telecom regulators and legislators from the ruling Grand National Party.

“Smartphone is bringing about a sweeping change,” an official who attended the meeting told Yonhap News Agency by phone on condition of anonymity. “We will gradually remove the barriers between telecom operators and hardware makers and promote the latest development in wireless information technology.”

The proposed media and telecommunications development fund, which will partly be raised from airwave fees paid by telecom operators, is expected to amount to 1.3 trillion won, according to the source. Part of the fund will be allocated to smartphone-related areas, such as expanding wireless Internet coverage.

Officials from Korea Communications Commission (KCC), the country’s telecom regulator, said at the meeting that it will adopt a new integrated rate plan to allow wireless Internet access on other portable gadgets such as game consoles. It added that smartphone subscribers in South Korea are forecast to reach 3.04 million by the end of this year.

YonhapNewsAgency

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