It has been confirmed that the Internet core networks (Internet Core, hereafter main centers) of major domestic telecom operators are concentrated in Seoul. With artificial intelligence (AI) and data usage surging, concerns are rising that if infrastructure is clustered in a specific region, a major disaster could lead to a nationwide communications blackout.
According to the telecom industry on the 11th, there are a total of seven Internet main centers operated by the three telecom companies, six of which are located in Seoul. SK Telecom (SK Broadband) has Internet main centers in Dongjak and Seocho, and LG Uplus has centers in Gasan and Nonhyeon. KT also has major centers in Guro and Hyehwa, but it is the only one among the three to have installed and is operating a third Internet main center in Busan, outside Seoul.
The Internet core serves as the "central command" that sends signals to base stations across the country. If this facility is paralyzed by a fire or power outage, the nation's wired communication network could be cut off in an instant. A telecom industry official said, "The concentrated structure of the wired Internet network contains a structural risk in which a failure in one place can spread nationwide," adding, "If a disaster occurs at a main center in the Seoul area, the country could face an unprecedented communications crisis in which Internet use is halted nationwide." The official added, "With Internet traffic surging due to the expansion of AI services, nationwide distribution is urgently needed to move away from a structure concentrated in the capital area."
Countries around the world have already adopted "geographic distribution" as a standard to ensure the stability of Internet networks. The World Bank, in a report released last year titled "Resilient Telecommunications Infrastructure - A Practitioner's Guide," explicitly recommended, "In the 5G (fifth-generation mobile communications) era, do not concentrate the communications core in a single city; instead, deploy it across multiple regions." In a paper released in 2024 by Wolfgang Kellerer of the Technical University of Munich, titled "Performance Evaluation of Transport Layer Security (TLS) in the Control Plane of a 5G Core," he also said, "Regional distribution is essential to prevent the entire network from being paralyzed in the event of a natural disaster or cyberattack."
The problem is securing facility construction expense and operating personnel. Vice Chairman Chae Hyo-geun of the Korea IT Service Association said, "The fact that Korea's Internet core structure is designed too heavily around the capital region is a legacy of the high-growth era of telecom infrastructure. It is due to consumption being concentrated in the capital area," adding, "The need for regional distribution is great, but there is a heavy expense burden to build facilities and perform network consolidation, and there are also difficulties in securing operating personnel in the provinces."
Meanwhile, according to the telecom industry, KT's Busan Internet main center is the only disaster-recovery-type core network in Korea built to maintain nationwide Internet service even if a disruption occurs in the Seoul area. A telecom industry official familiar with KT said, "Even if there is a problem at KT's Internet main center in the Seoul area, I understand that the single main center in Busan alone can back up about 80% of normal operating volume."