Communication blackout hits Seoul residents [PHOTOS]

Workers start repair work at KT's Ahyeon office, Sunday, after a fire destroyed its underground communication infrastructure the previous day. / Yonhap

By Lee Suh-yoon

Residents at one of the world's most wired cities saw their internet and phone connection abruptly cut off Saturday, following a fire at KT's underground network cable center in western Seoul.

Lee Ah-in, a university student, lost cellular service on her way to Hongik University Station on Saturday afternoon.

"At first, I thought I used up all my monthly data," Lee said. "The connection just shut down as my subway crossed over the Han River. Luckily, I was able to run into my friends in the street."

Police inspect site of the fire. / Korea Times photo by Bae Woo-han

Lee and her friends had planned to visit a few bakeries in the area. But as they were all KT users, their mute phones meant they could not use navigation apps to find what they were looking for.

Lee was only one of millions of KT network users in Seodaemun-gu, Jung-gu, Mapo-gu, Eunpyeong-gu and Yongsan-gu in Seoul and Goyang in Gyeonggi Province who were affected by the fire.

The fire started around 11 a.m. and continued for nearly 10 hours. The cause of the fire is still unknown.

Smoke comes out of KT Ahyeon office's underground network communication center, Saturday. / Yonhap

It affected 168,000 telephone lines and 220 bundles of optical fiber cables below the network service provider building in Ahyeon-dong.

Homes and shops were afflicted as well.

"Shops using the KT network credit card system accepted only cash. There was also no music at the shops, because their internet and music streaming service also stopped," Lee said. "It was like a modern dystopia."

The mobile carrier said 60 percent of mobile connections and 70 percent of household internet connections were repaired by Sunday morning. But full recovery of the service will take about a week, the company said.

A sign on a restaurant near Chungjeongno Station in Seoul, reads "Only cash payments possible due to KT fire," Sunday, after a fire destroyed an underground network cable hub in a nearby KT building the previous day. / Korea Times photo by Bae Woo-han

Lax fire regulation

The fire has brought the public's attention back to the nation's lax fire safety regulations.

The affected facility had only one fire extinguisher and no automatic fire response system including sprinkler. KT did not violate any regulations, because the relevant law obliges fire response systems for cable tunnels that are 500 meters or longer, while the tunnel in question was shorter than 500 meters.

"It was an underground room without a stationed worker, so the fire extinguisher was not much help anyways," Lee Chang-woo, a professor of the fire prevention department of Korea Soongsil Cyber University, said in a phone interview. "As sprinklers were not an option due to all the electrical equipment, there should have been a gas or mist-based automatic fire suppression system."

Police inspect site of the fire, Sunday. / Yonhap

Lee says the nation's fire safety regulations have been becoming laxer, not stricter, over the years.

"Opposition from interest holders has induced the regulation reform committee to pass laws easing fire safety standards, not strengthen them. And under these circumstances, we can't really expect the public servants in charge of monitoring fire safety to do their jobs properly."

Lee Young-ju, a professor of the fire prevention department at the University of Seoul, also said stricter fire standards are necessary.

"Communication cable tunnels have less serious fire hazards compared to other underground utility infrastructure," Lee told The Korea Times. "But as the aftermath of communication blackouts are becoming more serious than in the past, there needs to be a more systematic management and response system to such disasters."

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