The South Korean government plans to deregulate the nation's mobile market to facilitate the issue of a fourth mobile license.
The government is preparing a series of deregulation measures to help introduce new competition into the market, the Korea Heraldreported.
Korea's Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning believes introducing a fourth mobile operator will result in lower subscription costs and contribute to the development of emerging segments including the IoT.
The ministry rejected applications for a fourth mobile license six times between 2010 and 2014. Relaxing existing regulations to ease the burden of a new market entrant is expected to remove the hurdles that caused these rejections.
Applications for a mobile license will be accepted in August and reviewed between October and December, the report states.
Five companies are believed to be vying for the new license, including MVNO consortium Korea Mobile Internet, which has already applied for a mobile license and been rejected several times.
The ministry also reportedly plans to abolish the condition requiring existing mobile operators to receive prior approval before modifying call rates or introducing new rate plans.
Operators will instead merely have to inform the government of the planned charges, but the government may still intervene if the modifications conflict with the public interest.