South Korea takes one look at rising PC costs and decides to hand out free PCs to citizens
Across the globe, gaming PC and laptop prices are soaring. Price hikes are due to a number of factors, but the memory supply crisis caused by the AI industry's bottomless appetite for RAM and system storage is one major contributor. For most consumers, that means hoping the hardware you already own doesn't fail before prices come back down—but the South Korean government is taking a more proactive approach.
The government of South Korea has moved to introduce a number of measures to address the ballooning digital costs of living for its citizens. This includes market monitoring of the PC and laptop sector, plus the expansion of support for low-income students looking to pick up hardware for their studies, while also expanding efforts to recycle unused PCs (via CBS NoCutNews).
To begin with, the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy, together with the Fair Trade Commission will direct greater scrutiny towards the conditions of the DRAM, PC and laptop markets within South Korea in a bid to deter unfair practices. The South Korean government is of the opinion that, given the consumer price index for computers rose from 4.3% in October 2025 to 12.4% in March 2026, climbing prices could widen the gap of tech access for vulnerable citizens.
Hence why the South Korean government is so keen to subsidise PC and laptop purchases for low-income students across the education system. Currently, the plan is for the Ministry of Education and Offices of Education to work towards distributing at least one device to every elementary/primary and high school/secondary student. At the end of 2025, the government had already distributed 4.4 million units to students.
While I very much doubt all of those devices will be 'game ready,' I appreciate the ambition. I'm based in the UK and, for comparison's sake, the government here recently celebrated getting 1 million people online as part of its 'Digital Inclusion Action Plan.' That's still a lot of people for merry old England, but pales in comparison to South Korea's target figures for students alone. The UK also used to grant devices to school kids, though withdrew that plan in 2023. In short, a little more ambition from the UK government would be most welcome from me.
But as for South Korea, the government there also plans to make it easy and free to transfer surplus PCs from state agencies to local governments. A government official explained, "It is estimated that approximately 80,000 PCs exceed their useful life annually, of which about 22,000 are discarded."
Apparently, the government estimates that about half of the PCs deemed 'end of life' in 2025 could be fixed up and used to carry out basic admin tasks rather than be scrapped entirely.
At present, about a quarter of those 80,000 old PCs are being put to use elsewhere, but the South Korean government is looking to up this figure.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon said, "In the AI and digital era, the right to access data is linked to the fundamental rights necessary for the people to lead their daily lives."
As such, the government also intends to restructure the rate plans for three of South Korea's major mobile networks. This involves guaranteeing minimum internet usage, like sending messages to other users or the use of online maps, even when someone has used up their data allowance. The speed of this 'minimum internet access' will be around only 400 Kbps, but the government is already predicting it will benefit 7.17 million people, particularly senior citizens over the age of 65.
However unlikely it may be that your gran is tearing it up across Tau Ceti IV in Marathon, better supported digital access is no bad thing. Here's hoping governments across the globe follow suit soon, and don't leave dear old gran behind.