[Hands0n]

This could never happen here! ............. Well, could it? ........



The suicide of a young South Korean boy who racked up a huge phone bill playing games on his mobile has prompted local operators into revising their call plans. The unnamed 16 year-old student from the south western Korean town of Iksan killed himself on 15 February after running up a bill of 3.7m Won ($3,830), according to local police.

Following the tragedy, local operators have devised plans for unlimited data usage at a reasonable tariffs, AP reports. Market leader SK Telecom is offering an unlimited data package to mobile users for 30,000 Won a month ($31). KTF is charging 26,000 Won ($27) for a similar service. ®

Source article --> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/01/sk_mobile_data_cap/

[Ben]

Crikey O_o

The clever operators here just resorted to credit limits and debt collection agencies ;)

Poor kid. Evil networks.

[solo12002]

Poor kid. I have to question why the network permitted him to run up what clearly is a large bil for any 16 year old, or how he was able to get a mobile at that age.

I also have to question why UK networks are not doing the same. Data prices are far to high, what users want are fair prices, T-Mobile flext has gone some way in respect of voice calls, but they are still beaten by 02 offering of 100 mins and 150 texts with free voicemail and cheaper roaming for £35 pounds.

Uses want to be able to use voice calls and have access to data at a fair price, now if T-Mobile had taken the middle ground with their Walk and web and their Flext they would of been on to a winner, I for one would like a load of mins with some data, other like it the other way about.

[Hands0n]

To answer my own question, I truly believe that it could indeed happen over here. We have seen kids kill themselves for very much less. It can only be a matter of time before something like this happens.

For my part, I have taken out a contract handset for my 16-year old daughter which is great value provided she sticks to the "rules" and exploits Vodafone STC. But last month she got a bit of a brainstorm and blew all her bundled minutes and started incurring out-of-bundle costs. Not to any great amount (£13), I caught it in time. But undetected it could have mounted up through the month. So I would really like to be able to instigate a "Bundle Cap" on her particular number - preventing her from going out of bundle. But as far as I know, there is not a single mobile operator in the land who can/will do this. If they would, then Parents could properly manage their kids contract handsets until they are old enough to get their own.

Such a Bundle Cap should be simple to provide - and it would go a long way to preventing intentional or unintentional abuse and the possible consequences such as we read above.

Anecote: A work colleague of mine got his 16-year old daughter a mobile some four years back. She was out of work and bored, and in the course of a month of so ran up a mobile phone bill of somewhere near £1,000 calling her friends out of bundle and on prime daytime rates. Not terribly hard to do then, and probably still not so hard to do now. She didn't go suicidal but it caused a huge family rift that persists to this day.