[THE INVESTOR] South Korea’s three mobile carriers SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus announced their subsidy plans for the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 on Saturday, as they began receiving preorders for Samsung Electronics’ latest smartphone on the day.



Under current law, local smartphone buyers who purchase a smartphone and sign up for a payment plan here can choose from one of the following two subsidies -- an upfront, one-time subsidy that can be used in purchasing a new device, or a monthly 20 percent discount on the user’s phone bill.

According to comparative calculations of the net savings to be made, the latter option will likely be the smarter choice for customers seeking to buy a Galaxy Note 7, locally priced at 988,900 won ($890).

For those who purchase the new device under the widely popular “599 payment plan” -- a monthly fee of around 60,000 won before taxes -- LG Uplus is offering the highest subsidy at 158,000 won, followed by KT at 150,000 won and SKT at 137,000 won.

In addition, the mobile carriers are offering an extra on-site discount that amounts to around 15 percent of the given subsidies, further driving down the smartphone’s prices by about 20,000 won.

Given this, the monthly 20 percent option is likely to offer a higher net discount for consumers. Those who select the 599 payment plan under a two-year contract will receive a total of 316,000 won during the contract period.

Each network operator is offering exclusive discounts in conjunction with credit card companies as well -- such as SKT and the T Samsung Card 2 V2 credit card as well as KT and the KT Olleh Super Card.

The Galaxy Note 7, unveiled in New York last week, is a large-size smartphone equipped with a curved display, an iris scanner and an upgraded stylus. It is available locally only in the 64-gigabyte version and in three colors -- blue coral, gold platinum and silver titanium.

By Sohn Ji-young/The Korea Herald (jys@heraldcorp.com)