After a massive service disruption from the 2018 fire at KT's Ahyeon office in Seodaemun District, Seoul, authorities pushed for dualization of telecom lines, but an audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection found that 31.6% of existing networks still are not dualized, leaving the possibility of severe outages in the event of an incident. The Board also said that demand for data centers is surging with artificial intelligence (AI) development, but plans to secure power are inadequate, which could highlight power issues going forward, and it called for swift action by the relevant ministries.
On the 13th, the Board of Audit and Inspection released the audit findings titled "Fourth Industrial Revolution readiness check – risk preparedness in information and communications infrastructure." According to the Board, from 2019 to 2023, telecom disasters—meaning service interruptions at the city, county, or district level and above—have occurred seven times each year. It also found that new construction and expansion of data centers, which are heavy power users, are being constrained by insufficient power supply capacity.
Accordingly, the Board said it examined two risk-preparedness areas to ensure continuity of essential information and communications infrastructure for daily life: "prevention of service disruptions" and "power supply management for data centers," which are essential facilities for nationwide AI industry development.
The audit found insufficient dualization of networks, raising concerns about service interruptions in emergencies. After the 2018 fire, the Ministry of Science and ICT greatly strengthened dualization measures to ensure that even if a specific telephone office (central office) loses functionality, communications can be rerouted through another office.
However, the ministry's network dualization measures applied only when the network was configured as "user ↔ lower-level office (city/county/district jurisdiction) ↔ higher-level office (metropolitan jurisdiction)," and did not apply to direct "user ↔ higher-level office" connections.
In Sept. 2023, the ministry announced that 98.6% of all networks had been dualized, eliminating the risk of a repeat telecom disaster. But the Board's investigation found that, as of the end of 2024, 11.79 million out of 37.29 million lines (31.6%) held by three telecom operators had not been dualized.
In response, the Board notified the ministry to reconsider the need for dualization of lines directly served by higher-level offices and to factor in the number of end base stations when classifying grades of central offices.
Regarding data centers, the Board notified authorities to rationally improve methods for forecasting power demand. While sufficient power must be supplied for new construction and expansion of data centers to foster new technologies such as AI, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is underestimating future data center power demand, and, based on that, prolonged power shortages could result when expanding supply capacity, the Board said.
According to the Board, in the 11th Basic Plan for Power Supply and Demand announced in Feb., the ministry projected data center power demand through 2038 and reflected it in the power supply plan.
In that process, although 314 data centers were in operation at the end of 2023 with an annual power usage of 2,205 MW, the ministry reflected only the annual usage of 1,926 MW from 148 data centers.
It also emerged that in the midterm demand forecast, the ministry derived growth rates irrationally by applying an unrealistic assumption that "there will be no new increase in power demand in 2028."
Accordingly, the Board said it notified the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to accurately identify the status of data centers and reflect it in the baseline for power demand, and to improve the method for calculating power demand.
However, due to a government reorganization, the power demand forecasting function was transferred from the ministry to the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment. On this, a Board official said, "We notified the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of the relevant matters on the 24th of last month, before the government reorganization."