Faulty AP believed to be cause of cable internet disruption Thursday

Cable internet services provided by all three of Korea’s major network providers suffered partial disruptions for five hours across the country on Thursday. A faulty wireless access point is thought to be the problem.

Cable internet services provided by all three of Korea’s major network providers suffered partial disruptions for five hours on Thursday. [GETTY IMAGES]

Cable internet services provided by all three of Korea’s major network providers suffered partial disruptions for five hours across the country on Thursday.

The service disruption lasted from 4:57 p.m. to 9:58 p.m. on Thursday. The exact cause of the damages has yet to be determined.

A faulty wireless access point (AP) — manufactured by an unidentified supplier — is thought to be the problem, but the Ministry of Science and ICT and the telecommunications firms are further investigating the cause. Mobile carriers KT and SK broadband, providers of the malfunctioning APs, said they would compensate users for one day of internet access. Yonhap reported on Friday that up to 100,000 households used the faulty AP, which connects wireless devices to a wired network.

“The recent malfunction was caused after excessive traffic happened while the security software provider was replacing a firewall; we have identified that certain APs could not handle the excess traffic,” the ministry said Friday.

The ministry added that it would monitor the situation with the mobile carriers around the clock and investigate the problem with experts to avoid a reoccurrence.

The ministry is reportedly looking into the security firm responsible for changing the firewall and its contract with the network providers.

KT and SK Broadband advised owners of the faulty APs to reboot the devices before use, saying the problem had been resolved in a notice on Friday.

The two firms will compensate users one day of network fees, as is mandatory from their contracts. They must refund customers 10 times the costs for downtime when subscribers cannot use their services for two or more consecutive hours.

LG U+ does not provide the AP but has also been advising its customers, some of whom purchased the APs separately but use LG U+, to reset or upgrade the software for the devices.

BY KIM JU-YEON [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]