Fire network cables almost completely paralyzed communication part of Seoul

A fire in a tunnel in western Seoul has destroyed cables belonging to telecom company KT. The fire disrupted much of communications in part of the city, including the police emergency number.

The fire in the underground facility of KT, one of the country’s three largest telecom providers, started on Saturday and lasted almost ten hours. In the process, 168,000 telephone lines and 220 bundles of fiber optic cables were burned, Korean media outlets such as Hani and Korean Times reported. The cause is not yet known.

Due to the disruption of the networks, 210,000 households in western Seoul were unable to make mobile calls and had no internet for their fixed connections. The police and emergency services were also temporarily inaccessible, as were the computer networks of hospitals and the networks of security cameras. In addition, it was not possible to pay at hundreds of shops in the district. Pay phones for the landline still functioned, based on photos of people queuing for such devices.

By Sunday morning, 60 percent of mobile and 70 percent of internet connections had been restored; the full recovery operation will take a week. The total damage is estimated at 247 million euros. The incident has led to discussions in South Korea about the dependence on ICT technology, the inspection of network facilities and the cooperation of the major telecom companies. The Minister for ICT is holding emergency consultations with the three telecom companies KT, SKT and LG Uplus to prevent a recurrence. Cooperation between the companies must guarantee that connections remain in the air, even if part of a single company fails.