Kang Sang-hyuk, Chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, "KT Internet Outage, Regret as a Regulatory Authority"

Fines Imposed on Three Sites Including High Green Parking
Service Safety Improvement Recommended for Kakao Mobility

The Korea Communications Commission held a plenary meeting on the 27th and imposed fines on High Green Parking, Parking Cloud, and T map Mobility for violating compliance requirements for location-based service providers. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo, taken during Chairman Han Sang-hyuk's attendance at the National Assembly audit on the 21st.

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] Han Sang-hyuk, Chairman of the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), stated at the 47th plenary meeting on the afternoon of the 27th, "We regret the inconvenience and concern caused to the public due to KT's internet service outage as a regulatory authority."

Chairman Han Sang-hyuk said, "As the main agency responsible for user protection, the KCC will make every effort to ensure that KT thoroughly identifies the inconveniences and various damages suffered by the public and that appropriate compensation and user protection measures are reviewed." He added, "It is important that user damage reports are widely collected, centered on KT. We will work closely with the Ministry of Science and ICT and telecommunications companies to ensure thorough prevention of recurrence and compensation for damages."

Kim Hyun, Vice Chairman of the KCC, also stated, "It is necessary to carefully discuss the cause of the incident when it occurs." He noted, "There were talks of a DDoS attack and later routing issues. While opinions can be expressed in urgent situations, it can also cause market anxiety. When an internet service outage occurs, there needs to be a detailed manual, down to the second, on how to inform the public and improve the situation."

On the same day, the KCC investigated cases where parking information of vehicles owned by others was exposed to third parties through parking management applications (apps). As a result, it was found that three companies?High Green Parking, Parking Cloud, and Tmap Mobility?violated the compliance requirements for location-based service providers under the "Act on the Protection and Use of Location Information," and fines were imposed.

The commission recommended that each company prepare measures to prevent recurrence and decided to impose a fine of 49.48 million KRW and a penalty of 3 million KRW on High Green Parking, a fine of 37.63 million KRW and a penalty of 1.5 million KRW on Parking Cloud, and a fine of 810,000 KRW on Tmap Mobility. Including these three companies, Kakao Mobility was also advised to strengthen safety measures in their parking management app services, such as verifying vehicle ownership, to prevent parking usage information from being exposed to third parties.

The commission also approved the new license for the terrestrial UHD broadcasting station in Jeju region, applied for by the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS). The license is valid for three years until December 31, 2024, and the UHD station will begin broadcasting from January next year.

Additionally, the commission reviewed and approved the basic plan for the re-licensing examination of four broadcasting advertising sales agencies of comprehensive programming channel operators, whose license validity periods are set to expire in 2022. The '2020 media exchange rate' and '2020 broadcaster audience share calculation results' calculated by the Media Diversity Committee were also approved.