By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter


One out of four Koreans can be categorized as cell phone addicts that need treatment, according to a local consumer research outfit Tuesday.

Marketing Insight said its poll, conducted in March, showed 23.7 percent of 9,836 respondents were obsessive mobile phone users, who refuse to part with the hand-held gadget even for a second.

``We asked seven questions about their dependency on their cell phone and grouped those who say yes in more than six provisions as addicts,’’ Marketing Insight president Kim Jin-kook said.

``In some cases, prompt treatment like counseling is necessary to remedy addiction. Some try to send messages during school hours or while driving a car.’’

As high as 68.1 percent of respondents said they feel insecure when the cell phone battery runs out and 67.9 percent said they are irritated when leaving the phone at home.

Up to 36.2 percent replied they cannot turn the handset off even when they are supposed to do so like watching a movie or a play in the theater.

More vexing is that a mounting number of young Koreans, especially in their high teens, suffer from a compulsive usage of the wireless handset.

The rate of cell phone addicts were 26.7 percent for middle school students and 35 percent for high school pupils, much higher than the average of 23.7 percent.

Women were more prone to the phone addiction at 26.2 percent in comparison to men’s 21.8 percent.

Experts say it is time to turn our attention not only to Web junkies but also to the indiscreet use of cell phones.

``The concept of mobile phone addiction should be defined more precisely. But it is sure that dependency on the phone is too excessive for some people,’’ Kookmin University professor Lee Su-jin said.

The worst-case scenario is double-addiction involving the Internet and cell phone at the same time, which can become a reality in years to come with the dominance of wireless Internet.

Currently, people do not have access to the Internet on the road because of its high cost and technical limitations, but things will be much different early next year.

KT, Korea’s top fixed-line telecom operator, plans to commercially launch an Internet-on-the-go service, named WiBro, next April and SK Telecom, the primary wireless carrier, looks to follow suit.

With the debut of WiBro, formerly known as 2.3-gigahertz portable Internet because of its allocated frequency, people on the move will be able to remain connected to the high-speed Internet.

``We should draw up measures in order to prevent addiction to the mobile Internet, which will emerge as an irritating problem in time with the services like WiBro,’’ said Hwang Jin-ku, a researcher at the state-backed Korea Institute for Youth Development.

``In the past, Internet addicts spent time in PC rooms (Internet cafe) or at home. Yet, they will be seen everywhere after the launch of the mobile Internet.’’

Hwang also cautioned against a dreaded addiction cocktail involving both cell phones and the Internet.

``The overlapping addiction to the Internet and cell phone will be disastrous. Now is the time to straighten things up before the younger generation become hooked to the deadly mix based on the cheap service price of WiBro,’’ Jin said.

Currently, people can log onto the Web through their phones but the connection price is prohibitively high.

However, WiBro would slash the costs as KT jockeys to charge a fixed-rate basic fee at less than 30,000 won at a pre-set capacity, possibly in the neighborhood of 2 gigabytes.

Additional usage will be at a charge but the price is still expected to be very low compared to the hefty price tag of the current handset-based Web access.

voc200@koreatimes.co.kr