"Lunch Business Ruined" KT Internet Outage Causes Widespread Damage

Lunch Customers Turn Away Due to Card Payment and QR Code Failures
Taxi Drivers Left Idling Amid Navigation and Call System Outages

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] The internet outage at KT on the morning of the 25th caused widespread damage in various places. The impact on dining areas was particularly severe due to the outage occurring just before lunchtime.

From around 11 a.m. that day, KT's wired and wireless internet services experienced an outage lasting about an hour. As a result, internet subscribers faced significant inconvenience in using internet services, and for some subscribers, even regular phone calls were unavailable, causing the outage to spread.

The damage was especially severe in dining areas. Card payments stopped working, and QR codes could not be properly verified, forcing customers to manually fill out visitor logs, leading to congestion. Kang Chae-young (25), an employee at a hot dog shop in Jongno-gu, Seoul, said, "Customers flocked in at lunchtime, but card payments stopped working, so we couldn't make any sales," adding, "It caused a significant hit to our revenue."

Hwang Mi-kyung (55), owner of a stone pot rice restaurant in Seongdong-gu, also said, "The internet outage lasted over 30 minutes, so we couldn't accept any card payments and had to encourage all customers to pay in cash, which was exhausting," adding, "The customer center didn't answer calls, and it was very distressing that this happened during the busiest lunchtime."

Convenience stores frequently visited by office workers also suffered damage. An employee A at a convenience store in Jung-gu, Seoul, said, "About 15 customers couldn't pay by card during the one-hour outage and left without buying anything," adding, "Since people don't carry cash much these days, we couldn't sell anything for an entire hour."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Taxi drivers who have to pick up passengers via calls on their smartphones were also thrown into confusion. Taxi driver Kang Ki-kwon (57) said, "My mobile phone stopped working, so the navigation didn't operate, and I couldn't receive any calls," adding, "I barely managed to continue business by picking up passengers who hailed me on the street."

Another taxi driver, Seo Gu-won (69), said, "After dropping off one passenger, no calls came through, so I wondered what was going on," adding, "I could have picked up 3 to 4 more passengers in an hour, but I guess I have to accept the loss today," expressing bitterness.

College students and job seekers attending online non-face-to-face classes were also hit hard. College student Hwang Ho-jin (30) said, "I was startled when the internet suddenly cut off while attending class," adding, "Neither the professor nor the students understood what was happening, so the class continued as is, and I regret missing the lecture content during the outage."

Meanwhile, most of the internet service outages were resolved around noon that day. However, it was understood that in some areas, recovery took a bit longer due to issues with lines and other factors.

KT initially attributed the service disruption to a DDoS attack but corrected this to a configuration error causing the outage after about two hours.