Science and ICT Committee summons KT President Kang Guk-hyun over 'communication failure'... Discusses next year's budget plan

Full Meeting Held at 2 PM on the 9th
President Kang Guk-hyeon Adopted as Witness for Urgent Issue Inquiry
Priority on Fact-Finding of Night Work Status
Discussion on Compensation Plan and Recurrence Prevention Measures
ICT Bills Including Platform and Telecom Regulation Also Submitted

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] Kang Guk-hyun, President of KT Customer Division, has been selected as a witness for an emergency inquiry regarding the nationwide wired and wireless internet outage at KT during the full meeting of the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee. Since KT stated that "the primary responsibility lies with the partner company," the discussion is expected to mainly focus on verifying the specific facts and the scale of compensation for general customers and small business owners affected.

The National Assembly's Science and Technology Committee plans to conduct an inquiry related to the KT communication outage incident targeting President Kang and Seo Chang-seok, Head of the Network Innovation TF (Executive Director), at the full meeting held from 2 p.m. on the 9th. President Kang and Executive Director Seo are in charge of managing the technical aspects of the KT communication outage incident.

During the full meeting, discussions are expected to mainly cover the specific facts related to KT, the status of nighttime work, compensation measures for affected customers and small business owners, and measures to prevent recurrence of the incident. The report on KT-related issues will be the last in order, and the inquiry is expected to take place in the afternoon or evening of the same day.

In the market, there are voices calling for the reactivation of legislative discussions to establish a system foundation, pointing out that network diversification is essential for companies in light of the KT communication outage. Network diversification is a technology that prepares for switching to another telecom operator’s network to maintain customer service and business continuity even if one telecom operator experiences problems.

Legislation was promoted three years ago following the KT Ahyeon branch fire in 2018, but momentum waned over time. In 2019, then-Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Cheol-hee (currently Senior Secretary for Political Affairs at the Blue House) proposed amendments to the Electronic Government Act and Electronic Financial Transactions Act to mandate network diversification for public and financial institution operators, but the bills were automatically discarded due to the expiration of the 20th National Assembly’s term. The only related tariff plan created was by LG Uplus in January 2020, which reflected a 30% discount rate for backup lines in the domestic dedicated line usage terms and conditions.

Additionally, many ICT-related bills pending in the 21st National Assembly will be discussed. There are 16 proposed amendments each to the Telecommunications Business Act and the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection. Also included are amendments to the Act on Improvement of Distribution Structure of Mobile Communication Devices, the Special Act on Promotion and Convergence of Information and Communications, the Telecommunications Construction Business Act, the Act on Protection of Information and Communications Infrastructure, the Basic Act on Intelligent Informatization, and the Act on Development of Cloud Computing and Protection of Users.

Many bills focusing on regulation of large platform companies will also be discussed. The partial amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act proposed by People Power Party lawmaker Jeong Hee-yong specifies that value-added telecommunications service providers meeting criteria such as revenue, number of users, and market share set by presidential decree must obtain approval from the Ministry of Science and ICT when acquiring value-added telecommunications businesses above a certain scale or merging with a corporation that is a value-added telecommunications service provider. The Democratic Party’s lawmaker Han Jun-ho’s proposal includes requiring value-added telecommunications service providers above a certain scale to report their service terms and conditions to the Minister of Science and ICT and to establish a Terms and Conditions Review Committee under the Ministry. Another proposal by Han Jun-ho introduces a system allowing the Minister of Science and ICT to order market structure improvement measures such as corporate division and separation of organization and operation if a value-added telecommunications service provider above a certain scale seriously harms fair competition or user interests.

Several bills emphasizing that telecommunications operators must fulfill their duties to provide stable services are also pending. An amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act, which requires period telecommunications operators to measure the speed of internet services provided to users and report annually to the Minister of Science and ICT, and for the Ministry to reflect this in annual telecommunications service quality evaluations, is also under discussion. This is a follow-up measure to the KT internet speed degradation controversy raised by IT YouTuber Itssub.

Many bills emphasizing that domestic and foreign big tech companies must also bear public responsibilities for socially vulnerable groups are included. These include the partial amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act proposed by lawmaker Yang Jeong-sook and the amendments to the Telecommunications Business Act and the Broadcasting and Communications Development Act proposed by Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Yong-bin.

At the full meeting, the agenda will also include the adoption of the personnel hearing plan for KBS President candidate Kim Ui-cheol, the 2022 budget proposals for the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Korea Communications Commission, and the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, as well as the fund operation plans for the Science and Technology Promotion Fund, Nuclear Fund, Broadcasting and Communications Development Fund, and Information and Communications Promotion Fund for discussion.

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