Will the '3-Hour Continuous' Compensation Standard Change? KT Holds Emergency Board Meeting

KT Holds Emergency Board Meeting in the Morning to Discuss Compensation Plan
CEO Koo Hyun-mo Promises "Active Compensation"
Growing Calls to Change Terms to 'Over 1 Hour'

KT held a board meeting on the 29th to discuss revising the compensation policy for high-speed internet service outages, changing the standard to "service interruption lasting more than 3 consecutive hours" as a follow-up measure to the nationwide wired and wireless network outage incident. KT CEO Koo Hyun-mo bowed his head in apology on the 28th.

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] KT is reportedly set to revise its compensation policy for damages related to high-speed internet service outages lasting "more than 3 consecutive hours" as a follow-up measure to the nationwide wired and wireless network outage incident that occurred on the 25th.

On the same day, KT held an emergency board meeting presided over by CEO Ku Gun-mo starting at 8 a.m. to discuss the compensation plan. The board reportedly held the meeting for about three hours and resolved the compensation plan, but the specific details are expected to be announced after an emergency briefing by the Ministry of Science and ICT in the afternoon.

Since CEO Ku promised to prepare a "proactive compensation plan" beyond the existing terms and conditions, broad discussions are anticipated. Ku bowed his head when meeting reporters at KT Hyehwa Tower the previous day. He stated, "Regardless of the terms and conditions, we will actively prepare a compensation plan," and added, "Starting next week, we will also set up and operate a victim reporting center."

According to the current KT terms of use, customers subscribed to mobile phones, high-speed internet, and IPTV can receive compensation if they do not receive service for more than 3 consecutive hours. However, this incident officially ended in about 1 hour and 25 minutes. There have also been criticisms that it is not easy for general consumers, self-employed individuals, and small business owners to directly prove the causal relationship of damages.

Gu Hyun-mo, CEO of KT, speaking

Furthermore, it has been reported that KT’s board of directors discussed the possibility of updating the damage compensation standards specified in the terms of use to better reflect the current era. CEO Ku also expressed agreement, saying, "The existing compensation-related terms were established a long time ago, and since we now rely on data communication, that part needs to be improved."

Criticism is also mounting in the National Assembly that the compensation standards for telecom companies should be strengthened. Jo Seung-rae, the ruling party’s ranking member of the Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, said, "The existing terms are compensation standards from the voice communication era, and we have agreed to work with the government to consider changing them to terms suitable for the data era." Assemblyman Byun Jae-il also pointed out, "The terms of the three major telecom companies remain as they were 19 years ago, so the 'more than 3 hours' standard should be changed to 'more than 1 hour.'"

The Ministry of Science and ICT, which has been criticized for negligence in managing and supervising the country’s key information and communication infrastructure, high-speed internet, will announce the investigation results of the incident’s cause and measures to prevent recurrence in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, KT revealed that the incident occurred around 11:20 a.m. on the day of the accident when a command line was omitted during the routing (network path configuration) work on newly installed equipment for network advancement in Busan. Although the work was approved as a nighttime operation, it was carried out during daytime hours by the operator, and the incident was determined to be a human error caused by the absence of a management system. To prevent recurrence, KT plans to operate a testbed to conduct virtual experiments before applying them in reality.

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