Seoul City Councilor Jeong Ji-gwon Urges Selection of Seongsu Station to Sinseol-dong Station as Pilot Section for Seoul Subway Public Wi-Fi Implementation

Subway Public Wi-Fi Installation's Estimated 2 Trillion Won Communication Cost Savings Over 3 Years Disappear... Project Pushed Hastily Since 2015 Leads to Legal Disputes, Calls for Complete Halt

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Seoul Metropolitan Council member Jeong Ji-gwon (Democratic Party, Seongdong 2) stated that the public Wi-Fi provision project in the subway, promoted in 2015 under the 'Seoul Subway Communication Service Improvement Plan' by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, has been at a complete standstill for the past five years due to a legal dispute with the initial contracted company caused by the hasty implementation by Seoul Metro. To regain momentum for re-promotion, he urged the Seoul Metropolitan Government to promptly proceed with the 'Subway Public Wi-Fi Provision Project' by designating the Seongsu Station to Sinseol-dong Station section on Line 2 branch as a pilot project area.

According to Councilor Jeong, the 'Seoul Subway Communication Service Improvement Plan,' directed by the Seoul Deputy Mayor in November 2015, was pursued with the goal of 'improving subway communication service (Wi-Fi) quality and reducing communication costs for ordinary citizens.'

If the subway public Wi-Fi provision project had been implemented as planned, the system would have been established by February this year, allowing normal service, which would have resulted in approximately 2 trillion KRW in communication cost savings for Seoul citizens over the next three years.

The Seoul Subway 'Public Wi-Fi Provision Project' was initiated when Seoul Metro established the project policy in 2016 and began selecting operators. However, due to the domestic three major mobile carriers' lack of interest and no companies willing to participate, after five rounds of bidding and failures, a preferred negotiation partner was selected, and the final contract was signed on February 12, 2018, marking the start of the project.

Seoul Metro aimed to launch the service by February 12, 2020, but the contract was canceled due to the preferred negotiation partner's failure to obtain a telecommunications business license and various deficiencies in design documents. As a result, the subway public Wi-Fi provision project, which was intended to reduce communication costs for ordinary citizens, came to a complete halt.

Meanwhile, Seoul Metropolitan Government overcame controversies over violations of the Telecommunications Business Act and opposition from the Ministry of Science and ICT, and began a pilot service of the Seoul public Wi-Fi 'Kkachion' excluding the subway from November 1. Starting with Seongdong-gu and Guro-gu, by mid-November, the pilot service expanded to five autonomous districts including Eunpyeong-gu, Gangseo-gu, and Dobong-gu.

Councilor Jeong Ji-gwon emphasized, “Due to the failure of the Seoul subway public Wi-Fi project, citizens have missed out on benefits that could have saved about 2 trillion KRW in communication costs over three years,” and added, “This is the result of Seoul Metro rushing the project for performance and the Seoul Metropolitan Government leaving it solely to the Metro without proper oversight.” He strongly urged the Seoul Metropolitan Government to select the Seongsu Station to Sinseol-dong Station section as the pilot project area and proceed with the project.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.