Ahead of a large BTS-related concert to be held around Gwanghwamun in Seoul on the 21st, the three mobile carriers will activate special telecom measures to prepare for a surge in massive traffic. With hundreds of thousands expected to gather, the likelihood of photo and video uploads and real-time viewing happening simultaneously is high, making mobile network stability management a key task.
According to the telecom industry on the 15th, the three carriers, including SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus, have prepared a response system that includes expanding network capacity, deploying mobile base stations, and real-time quality control for events to be held around Gwanghwamun and Seoul City Hall.
SK Telecom will operate its AI-based network management system "A-One" for the first time at this event. With more than 260,000 people expected to flock to the site, including about 22,000 ticketed attendees on the concert day, the company plans to use AI from pre-event network design to real-time quality control.
The section stretching from Gwanghwamun to Seoul City Hall was divided into three zones to design the network according to crowd density and usage patterns. Inside the venue, the design accounts for concentrated photo and video uploads, while separate networks will operate in the outside waiting areas and surrounding roads to prepare for live broadcast viewing and increased mobile traffic. Additional mobile base stations and temporary telecom facilities will be deployed to expand network capacity.
KT also expanded network capacity by deploying six mobile base stations around Gwanghwamun Square and City Hall Square and installing 79 additional wireless base stations and 14 Wi-Fi units. On the concert day, it will activate an emergency duty system centered on the Gwacheon Network Control Center and deploy more than 80 specialists on-site, including about 40 engineers.
It will also apply the AI-based traffic automatic control solution "W-SDN" to prepare for a surge in wireless traffic due to social media uploads, personal live broadcasts, and OTT streaming. The technology is designed to detect signs of base station overload in real time and respond within one minute.
LG Uplus will run a response system based on an autonomous network. Before the event, it deployed mobile base stations and temporary repeaters at about 10 key locations around Gwanghwamun Square and nearby areas and carried out capacity checks and pre-optimization of existing base stations.
On the day of the event, it will operate a dual response system linking on-site personnel with the Magok network situation room. If traffic concentrates on a specific cell, operating values such as base station output and connection holding time will be automatically adjusted to distribute the load to neighboring base stations.
The industry views this event as more than a large concert, seeing it as a chance to test mobile network operations capabilities. That is because, beyond data use by on-site attendees, simultaneous logins and real-time content consumption by fans around the world could generate traffic far greater than usual.