SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus, the three major telecom operators, said on the 2nd they will run special measures for telecom services in preparation for the fireworks festival held around Yeouido Hangang Citizens Park and Ichon Hangang Park.
The fireworks festival will run from the eve event on the 4th to 1 p.m.–11 p.m. on the 5th. Crowds are expected to peak during the fireworks show from 7:40 p.m. to 9:10 p.m. on the 5th.
SK Telecom predicted event traffic based on last year's measured data. Last year's unique visitors totaled 193,000, and the maximum concurrent connections during the fireworks show were 88,000, confirming a trend of crowds spreading to adjacent areas such as Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market and all the way to Mulbit Plaza at Mapo Bridge.
Reflecting this, SK Telecom plans to expand fixed facilities at locations such as the Yeouido Hangang Park cruise dock, clock tower, and Yeouinaru Station, and to deploy additional temporary facilities such as mobile base stations and electric vehicle base stations to operate the network. SK Telecom said it applied its in-house artificial intelligence (AI) operations system, A-One (Access All-in-One), cutting the time needed to draw up event analysis and response plans from five days to 30 minutes. The system instantly analyzes the expected number of spectators and the number of the company's subscribers, as well as the capacity and load rate of existing equipment, to determine whether reinforcement is needed and recommend optimal expansion locations. SK Telecom plans to use this system to identify traffic concentration zones in real time on the event day and respond immediately to changing conditions.
KT conducted checks on telecom quality along major movement routes such as the Yeouido Hangang Park area and nearby subway stations, and increased the capacity of surrounding base stations in advance. It also deployed additional mobile base stations to secure network capacity. On the event day, it will run a 24-hour response system centered on an integrated control room to respond quickly to any unusual situations. In particular, KT plans to use 5G network slicing technology to help the organizers receive CCTV footage from across the venue without congestion. 5G network slicing is a technology that divides a single 5G network into multiple slices to provide more stable telecom quality for specific services.
LG Uplus built additional mobile base stations and temporary equipment and carried out wireless network optimization to increase wireless traffic capacity ahead of the event. It also finished advance call quality measurements and network inspections, completing preparations for potential large-scale traffic. At the venue, it will deploy specialists for call quality checks and failure response to run a real-time response system. On-site personnel will continuously monitor telecom quality around the venue and take immediate action in the event of failures to ensure stable telecom services. It also plans to proactively respond to base station overloads and automatically control traffic through AION, an AI-based autonomous operations network platform.