South Korea has been preparing to cut the wholesale cost of renting network capacity for its MVNOs, in the hope one will then grow up into a fourth national MNO. This comes as other countries in the region and more widely are mulling over their MVNO strategies as a counter to consolidation among MNOs, and to stimulate service diversity. Regulatory action is often necessary to overcome friction, sometimes deliberately imposed by MNOs keen to restrict competition, and also to provide the bargaining power that relatively weak MVNOs cannot exert themselves, even collectively. This was the situation in South Korea after a failed attempt to launch a fourth MNO, a little-known company called StageX, backed by a consortium led by the…