Overview
- The Finance Ministry said it will expand reuse and free donation of surplus public-agency computers and will widen subsidies for low-income students through a supplementary budget expected later this month.
- Officials cited a squeeze on conventional DRAM as chipmakers prioritize high-bandwidth memory for AI systems, with consumer PC prices up 10.8% in February and 12.4% in March from a year earlier.
- Government records show about 22,000 PCs were disposed of last year and more than half were scrapped, so the plan shifts more units to repair and reuse and lets local governments place them with vulnerable groups.
- Trade and competition authorities are reported to be preparing inspections of DRAM, PC, and laptop markets to spot unfair pricing or illegal activity, though officials have not detailed final rules.
- Reports also describe a proposal to restructure mobile data plans to guarantee a 400 Kbps fallback after caps, a change projected to help about 7.17 million people, especially older users.