À̹ÌÁö È®´ë [Graphics by Song Ji-yoon]
South Korea will detail guideline on a server stabilization duty imposed on large content providers such as Naver and Kakao from home and multinationals like Netflix in September after industry feedback next month.
Large content providers (CP) have become responsible for taking measures to ease traffic on the network under the revised Enforcement Ordinance to the Electrical Industry Law, which went into effect in December last year.
According to the Ministry of Science and ICT on Thursday, a total of 12 violations including a system breakdown due to heavy traffic have been reported since the legislation. The ministry said it will review the violations to make a guideline draft this month and collect feedback from the industry in August before issuing a final version in September.
The government chose a guideline instead of a state register notice, suggesting it has no intention to regulate the network usage, said Kim Min-pyo, Director of Telecommunications Competition Policy at the ministry, adding the network usage fee should be determined voluntarily by the industry, not by the government.
Kim¡¯s remark suggests that the government will not intervene in the ongoing legal fight between Netflix and SK Broadband over the network usage fee.
Earlier, the Seoul Central District Court ruled in favor of SK Broadband and against Netflix that argues it has no obligation to pay network usage fees and the payment demand from SK Broadband violates the principle of net neutrality. SK Broadband, a subsidiary of mobile carrier SK Telecom, has accused Netflix of free-riding on its network despite huge traffic overload caused by its streaming service in Korea.
By Na Hyun-joon and Minu Kim
[¨Ï Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]