KT CEO Koo Hyun-mo Apologizes for Internet Speed Degradation Issue... Promises to Prevent Recurrence

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] KT CEO Koo Hyun-mo apologized and promised to prevent recurrence regarding the quality issues of the 10 gigabits per second (Gbps) internet service raised by YouTuber Itssub.

On the 21st, at the ‘World IT Show 2021 (WIS 2021)’ held at COEX in Seoul, CEO Koo told reporters, “After investigating the issue raised by YouTuber Itssub, we found that there were mistakes on our part and problems in the response process.”

CEO Koo stated, “We thought the same issue might affect others besides Itssub, so we conducted an investigation on all customers using speeds above 2.5 Gbps and discovered misconfigurations in 24 cases. We will properly reconfigure those settings. It has been about two weeks since the facility relocation, and we will of course provide compensation beyond the terms and conditions for the affected customers.” He emphasized, “The important thing is to prevent recurrence,” adding, “To avoid recurrence, we have automated the speed configuration process during the facility relocation.”

On the same day, KT issued an official notice on its website regarding the 10 Gbps internet quality, stating, “We sincerely apologize for not being attentive enough from the customer’s perspective during the response process to customers who experienced inconvenience.”

This controversy escalated after Itssub revealed on his YouTube channel on the 17th that the KT 10 Gbps internet service he was using was actually provided at a speed of only 100 megabits per second (Mbps), which is one hundredth of the promised speed. He also pointed out the rude response from customer service staff during his complaint process.

KT explained the cause of the quality degradation, saying, “We confirmed that there was an error in the speed information settings for customers during the expansion and replacement of 10 Gbps internet equipment.” Furthermore, after conducting a full survey of 10 Gbps internet users, KT identified errors in the information of 24 customers and immediately corrected them.

KT added, “We will re-examine and reinforce the system that automatically detects errors to ensure no inconvenience to internet users,” and promised, “Customers whose speed errors are confirmed will receive fee reductions according to established standards through individual notifications.”