Living in South Korea: Postpaid mobile plan for LESS than 10,000 KRW per month?!

In this post, I am going to introduce a veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy cheap postpaid mobile plan provided by KT M Mobile (click here to go to their official website) which I could never imagine of getting one in South Korea. Thanks to our fellow Malaysian friend, Pit Harn, for introducing this to us!

Before that, one thing to clarify, this is NOT A PAID BLOG POST. I am writing this to help other foreigners in South Korea.


Okay! Let's start with some basic introduction!

How expensive is it?

Getting a phone number in South Korea can be really expensive, regardless of nationality. It is normal for a Korean to spend at least **50,000 KRW per month just for the mobile plan, and usually it comes with unlimited data, calls and SMS. However, if the mobile plan is a contract-based one including a smartphone, it can go up to at least 80,000 KRW per month.

**As of 8 Dec 2019, 1,000 KRW = $ 0.84  / RM 3.52

Why is it so expensive?

Honestly I am not sure too, probably because they ONLY offer fast data plan, like LIGHTNING FAST. Just some information, the highest speed in South Korea is 5G as of now, and at least 4G LTE. (Please correct me in the comment section if I am wrong)

However, I can assure you that those expensive ones are from the 3 main telco: KT, SKT and LG U+. I have a friend who is paying around 30,000 KRW just for 2GB data per month! He/she visited the nearest official telco store (one of the above I mentioned) and signed up a one-year contract. He/she is probably paying for the highest speed data, but it is still expensive, isn't it?

No cheaper option?

Of course there ARE always cheaper optionS! There is one kind of telco service called 알뜰폰 in South Korea, which I am going to introduce to you in this post.

In short, it is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) which provides much cheaper mobile plan than the Mobile Network Operator (MNO). The MVNO 'rent' the telco line from MNO with a lower price, and then re-package their own mobile plan for reselling to customers. For example, KT M Mobile (rents the line from KT), GS25 U+ 알뜰폰 (IKR, GS25 group rents the line from LG U+) and many more.

And you know what, for unlimited mobile plan, some of them are providing the service at less than 30,000 KRW per month! What's better, most of them are not contract-based, which mean you can change your plan as you like anytime~ What's best! You will be automatically connected to the free WiFi service provided by main telco too, on the subway or anywhere with installation in place! (I am not sure if this is applicable to ALL 알뜰폰, but for KT M Mobile, YES!!)

Explanation of 알뜰폰:

1. 알뜰폰 detailed explanation in Korean

So, let's get straight to the point now! 

How to get a Postpaid Mobile Plan from KT M Mobile

Prerequisite:

1. A local South Korea bank account with internet banking access opened
• I know this might sound dumb as you can only have internet banking access opened if and only if you have a phone number. You would need this so that you can complete prerequisite #2.
• For my own experience, I used my friend's phone number (whose number is not registerd under the same bank) to register for internet banking access and to get prerequisite #2 done.
• After successfully getting a phone number from KT M Mobile, I changed my registered phone number for internet banking over the bank counter again.
2. 법용 공인인증서
• Read here for some sample steps getting this thing done: How to Get an Official ID Certificate for Online Use in Korea (공인인증서)
• For my case, I was using Daegu Bank, so I get this thing done via Daegu Bank official website.
• Please make sure you apply for 법용 certificate, which would require a payment of 4,400 KRW. This certificate is required by KT M Mobile in one of the application steps later.
3. Buying KT M Mobile USIM Card
• You can buy it online or offline.
• Online: KT M Mobile official website, and you get to choose with or without NFC
• Update on 24 January 2021: They are currently having collaboration with Coupang 쿠팡, and you can buy the USIM card with NFC at only 4,400KRW!
• Offline: 7-11 / Ministop / C Space, and they have only USIM card with NFC (8,800 KRW)
• For my case, I bought it at the nearest 7-11 which was selling this. (not all 7-11 branches have it)

Step-by-step Application

Please note that you would need some basic knowledge of Korean language to complete this independently, or you can look for friends with fluent Korean to help you, or just use translation engine. 😂😂

The following steps are demonstration of my own experience in KT M Mobile official website- after buying USIM Card from 7-11. The steps are in order.

Select 세븐일레븐 셀프개통

Scroll down the page and click on this

I am not a Korean, so I chose 외국인 > 신청하기 (셀프개통)**

**Note: You can also opt for 해피콜개통, which the staff will assist you in registering the SIM card via call. However, there should be no extra discount. For my case, I got lifetime 2,200 KRW discount every month from my subscription fees since I chose to perform 셀프개통.

UPDATE ON 3 January 2020:
KT M Mobile starts to limit the lifetime 2,200 KRW discount to CERTAIN PACKAGES ONLY when you perform 셀프개통. So make sure to check out their official website from time to time for the latest offer.

You should choose 셀프개통하기 (우심 보유시) if you already bought USIM card from 7-11. If you haven't you should choose the left one, then the page will direct you to buy USIM card online first. You can only perform 셀프개통 with a USIM card actually on your hand.

✅PART 1: Subscription Package Selection/T&C Agreement (요금제 확인/약관동의)

Blue circle: choose 신규가입 for registering new phone number.
**Red circle: choose the package which suits your need.

**Note: I chose USIM 1.9 with 2 GB data, 200 minutes call and 200 SMS. You can read more about the available packages offered here. In my opinion, you just need to read the details of the available ones as below. I am not sure why they only make this list available although there are more you can check on their official website, guess there are some terms and conditions which I was lazy to read, lol~

Available packages

Scroll down from package selection on the same page. Agreement to some personal data collection and marketing information. The last two are optional if I remember correctly.
Select 다음.

✅PART 2: Identity Authentication  (본인인증 및 사전체크)

Consider this as a step to add more security to your application later, so it requires a lot of personal information and authentication.

The top of the page which involves the certificate authentication under 본인인증유형 selection.

Select 법용 인중서 if you do not have local Korea bank CREDIT CARD (신용카드), and click **본인인증 확인 to select the certificate which you downloaded previously.

**Note: To complete this step, you must have your 법용 인중서 (certificate) ready and make sure you are aware of the location of it being stored (phone / security token / Cloud / USB drive / hard disks / hard drives in computer). For my case, I stored in my computer's drive. Another thing, you might be required to download some software to extract the certificate.

Enter the details before getting to location of certificate

Make sure you select the correct 법용 certificate, key in the password and click 확인 at the bottom.
Red box: Portable disks (USB drive / computer's hard drive)
Purple box: Certificate password

This means the certificate authentication is SUCCESSFUL (성공 하였습니다).

The you can continue to scroll down the page and fill in the rest of the information.

Black circle: I filled in the phone number of the university's international office, guess it is not a big deal.
Red circle: This is the funny part here. You are required to key in a mobile phone number to get the update of  the new phone number's application status. I filled in my friend's phone number.

Scroll down to the most bottom of the page, click 개통사전체크확인. The system will verify your info provided in a few minutes before moving to next step.

When you see this window message, it means all the verification is successfully done.

✅PART 3: Phone Number Activation Application (개통신청)

Now this is the final part which you:

1. Get to choose which phone number you like (번호 예약)
2. Need to key in the USIM card serial number (USIM번호 입력), which you can find on the back of your USIM card, or the SIM chip. (first 19-digit, excluding the final alphabet)
3. Choose invoice issuance method (명세서 수신)
4. Choose payment channel (요금납부 방법)
5. Choose what kind of services (free/paid) you want

Red circle: Key in the last 4 digits you like, then click 번호조회 to see if there is any phone number combination with those last 4 digits available. You can try a maximum of 20 times with different last 4-digit combination.

A window like this will pop up if there is phone number available with the last 4 digits you keyed in.
Choose the phone number you like, and click 확인.

For payment channel, I chose auto deduction** (자동이체) since I don't have credit card. If I had credit card, I would not have to go through the troublesome of getting those certificates haha!

**Note: If you choose 자동이체, it is a must to click 계좌번호 유효성체크 for the system to verify your account's validity.

You will get this message if the verification is successful. (성공하였습니다)

휴대폰 안심 서비스: Some sort of insurance, you have to pay extra for that.
부가서비스 가입: Additional services you wish to subscribe to, click 추가/삭제 to choose/delete. Please note that some services do charge extra, some are free.

LASTLY, click 개통요청 at the bottom of the page!

Wait for maximum 2 minutes....

Then your new number is good to go!! 

You will see this at the bottom of the page.**

**Note: Click 개통상태조회 to check application status, click 완료 to exit the page. There will be a SMS sent to the 연락처 (the mobile phone number which you key in for receiving application status notification) informing you that the application of auto deduction from your bank account is successful.

YAY! Finally you can have a new local Korean phone number! 💓

Do not forget to change your internet banking phone number to this newly registered one afterwards~