On the evening of the 21st, when BTS held its comeback show, mobile traffic from the three carriers (SK Telecom, KT, LG Uplus) in and around Gwanghwamun Plaza in Seoul more than doubled compared with normal levels.
Despite the massive crowds, service remained stable without network disruptions, leading to assessments that the effectiveness of artificial intelligence (AI)-based network operations has been confirmed.
According to the telecommunications industry on the 22nd, network traffic in Gwanghwamun Plaza and nearby areas on the day of the show more than doubled overall compared with the previous weekend.
SK Telecom said that a total of 12.15 terabytes (TB) of mobile data was used in Gwanghwamun Plaza, Cheonggye Plaza, and Seoul Plaza during the three hours before and after the show (7 p.m.–10 p.m.). That is about twice as much as during the same time on the previous weekend (5.87 TB).
Converted to data usage, that equals sending about 2.43 million photos or streaming 4,860 hours of full HD video. By age group, users in their 20s accounted for the most at 30%, followed by those in their 30s (24%), 40s (22%), 50s and older (18%), and teens (6%). The number of foreign users during the same period also increased by about 23% from the previous weekend.
KT and LG Uplus showed similar trends. KT said wireless and OTT traffic in the Gwanghwamun area more than doubled, while LG Uplus said the number of connected devices at the start of the show doubled compared with the previous weekend.
Ahead of the event, the three carriers deployed mobile base stations and temporary repeaters on site and carried out network optimization. They especially emphasized that applying AI-based network operations allowed them to handle the traffic surge stably.
SK Telecom introduced the AI-based network operation system "A-One (Access All-in-One)" for the first time at this event. The system analyzes traffic in real time in 5-minute and 50-meter increments, immediately reallocating resources and distributing traffic if an overload is expected.
KT applied its AI-based automatic traffic control solution "W-SDN" to detect signs of base station overload in advance and establish an automatic response system within one minute. It also operated "AIONET," which monitors network conditions, including Netflix traffic, in real time.
LG Uplus used autonomous network technology to automatically adjust operating values such as output and consolidation duration when traffic concentrated on a particular base station, dispersing it to neighboring stations. Real-time monitoring by on-site personnel and the control center was also conducted in parallel.
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, as of 8:30 p.m. on the day before the show, about 46,000 to 48,000 people had gathered in the areas around Gwanghwamun and Deoksugung.
In the industry, this case is seen as evidence that AI-based network technology is moving beyond simple traffic management to become core infrastructure that maintains stable communications quality even at large-scale events.