hankyoreh

By Koo Bon-kwon, Technology Correspondent　
　
Allegations are being raised that KT deliberately sabotaged home telephones for 2G mobile phone subscribers, then visited their homes and asked them to switch to 3G phones.
Company employee Jeong Jin-a, a resident of the Dongsam neighborhood in Busan’s Yeongdo District, notified KT on Oct. 26 that her home telephone had suddenly gone out of order. The KT employees who visited her home that afternoon called Jeong, who was out at the time, and recommended that she cancel her 2G mobile phone from KT and replace it was a 3G version. The employees made no reference to the problem with her landline telephone.
“I was suspicious where only our line went out suddenly in the apartment and the visiting workers insisted that I change my mobile phone,” Jeong said.
Another KT user in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province, had a similar experience late last month. After reporting a sudden landline disconnection, the user was visited by two technicians who repeatedly suggested canceling the 2G mobile phone service. The user was suspicious of the fact that two employees were visiting for a simple disconnection, and that the head of the customer consulting team was present.
These are the incidents behind allegations that KT branches deliberately disconnected landlines in order to meet their goals for canceling 2G mobile phone service.
The Hankyoreh acquired an audio file Monday of operational orders given in mid-October at a KT branch in the greater Seoul area. In it, specific mention is made of causing disruptions to customers’ landline phone service and approaching the customers to urge a change to 3G service. A supervisor is heard gathering employees and giving specific orders, stating, “Today, we are going to cause disruptions. I’ll give you a list, and you go in pairs to take care it appropriately, by taking out the terminal box key or cutting the line or whatever have you.”
In the recording, the supervisor says, “How bad do you think things are that we thought up something like this?” and “We need to catch up in performance.”
Another KT branch in the greater Seoul area gave orders last month to “urge [people] to switch over without raising a fuss, since some of the branches in Seoul and elsewhere are deliberately cutting the landlines of 2G customers and the publicity is becoming a problem.” As a result, allegations are being raised that a number of branches are intentionally causing disruptions in landline service.
A KT employee said, “Some of the branches have had similar complaints from customers, but these were cases were the line actually did go out of order.”
“The head office directs us to use only legal means to persuade people to switch” to 3G service, the employee added.
KT rushed to switch over subscribers with plans early this year to withdraw its 2G services and offer 4G LTE service in the corresponding frequency bands (1.8 GHz). But it encountered difficulties due to the lackluster response from users.
The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) twice withheld approval for the discontinuation, claiming that many subscribers remained and there were insufficient user protections.
KT has approximately 160 thousand 2G mobile phone subscribers.
　　
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