KTCorporation(030200)[Edaily Reporter Han Kwangbeom ] It has been revealed that the three major telecommunications companies— SKTelecom(017670), andLG Uplus(032640) —have had unclaimed refunds totaling around 3 billion won for the past five years. With the number of unclaimed cases exceeding 630,000, there are calls to improve the current refund process, which focuses primarily on providing general notifications.
According to data submitted by the Korea Communications Commission to Rep. Han Jun-ho of the Democratic Party of Korea—who serves as secretary of the National Assembly’s Science, Technology, Information, Broadcasting, and Communications Committee—on the 23rd, the outstanding refund balance for the three major telecom companies decreased slightly from 3.13 billion won in 2022 to 2.96 billion won in 2025, but rose again to 3.06 billion won in June of this year. By carrier, SKT had the highest outstanding balance at 1.44 billion won. LG Uplus followed with 1 billion won, and KTCorporation with 620 million won.
The number of unclaimed refunds also remained at a similar level. It decreased from 635,383 cases in 2022 to 612,732 cases in 2024, then rose again to 629,536 cases last year and 630,965 cases in June of this year. In terms of the number of cases, LG Uplus accounted for 364,539 cases, representing 57.8% of the total. KTCorporation accounted for 175,429 cases, and SK for 90,997.
Telecom carriers are notifying customers of unclaimed refunds via SMS and mail. The number of SMS notifications reached 729,286 in 2023, 613,692 in 2024, and 670,007 last year. Although hundreds of thousands of notifications are sent each year, the total amount and number of unclaimed refunds have not decreased significantly.
On the government’s telecommunications bill information portal, “Smart Choice,” a total of 2,149,745 inquiries regarding unclaimed refunds were made from 2022 through June of this year. During the same period, actual refund applications totaled 15,963, accounting for just 0.7% of the total inquiries.
The ratio of refund applications to inquiries by year has declined from 0.8% in 2022 and 1.2% in 2023 to 0.7% in 2024, 0.5% last year, and 0.5% as of June this year. It has remained below 1% for the past three years. There were also quite a few cases involving relatively large amounts among the unclaimed refunds. As of June of this year, unclaimed refunds of 10,000 won or more totaled 2.46 billion won, accounting for 80.4% of the total unclaimed amount.
Representative Han Jun-ho pointed out, “Although telecom companies send out notifications for hundreds of thousands of cases every year, the amount of unclaimed refunds has remained stagnant at around 3 billion won for the past five years,” adding, “We should evaluate their accountability based on the actual amount and number of cases returned to the public, not just the frequency of notifications.”
He continued, “We must establish a system where users register a refund account when canceling a service and, with their consent, receive automatic refunds as soon as unclaimed funds arise.” He urged, “Application procedures—such as Smart Choice membership registration and account verification—should be streamlined, and the Korea Communications Commission should regularly disclose each provider’s refund performance and the status of long-term unclaimed funds.”
