SKT Deploys Over 5,500 Staff for Emergency Operations to Handle Surge in Traffic During Seollal Holiday

Additional Base Station Capacity Expansion
Special Management at Over 750 Locations Including Nationwide Highways, Airports, and Terminals

SK Telecom employees are inspecting base stations near train stations where many homebound travelers gather ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.
[Photo by SK Telecom]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] SK Telecom has prepared special measures to provide stable communication services by deploying about 5,500 personnel during the Lunar New Year holiday period.

SK Telecom announced on the 19th that it will operate a comprehensive control center with about 5,500 personnel from the 23rd to the 27th and activate an emergency duty system. The capacity of base stations has been expanded at about 750 locations nationwide where traffic surges are expected, such as highways, national roads, park cemeteries, airports, and terminals. In particular, quality optimization work and additional 5G equipment were implemented targeting rest areas near highways with the heaviest traffic congestion and terminals.

According to SK Telecom, during the Lunar New Year holiday period, data usage is expected to reach a record high of 597.4TB due to a significant increase in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) games, media viewing, and T-map usage. This is 24% more than on weekdays, equivalent to downloading about 47,820 15GB UHD movies. In particular, 5G data usage is predicted to increase by more than 26.4% compared to weekdays.

Additionally, on the holiday itself, the number of mobile communication service uses (attempted calls) such as calls, texts, and internet searches is expected to increase by 15.9% for 5G and 7.5% for LTE compared to normal days, and T-map usage is expected to increase by about 55.3% compared to usual.

SK Telecom also installed an additional 24 sets of 5G equipment and 14 sets of LTE equipment at Incheon Airport, where many overseas travelers gather during the Lunar New Year holiday. Furthermore, services such as 'Wavve' and the AI speaker 'NUGU' have completed all server pre-inspections in preparation for increased traffic.

Yoon Hyung-sik, head of SK Telecom's Infrastructure Operations Group, said, "Although this Lunar New Year holiday period is shorter than usual, the number of 5G subscribers is increasing, and the usage rate of services such as AR and VR is rising, so we advanced the inspection and expansion of servers and base stations and completed them ahead of schedule. We will do our best to provide high-quality communication services to customers during the Lunar New Year holiday."