KT busted and fined for sluggish broadband speeds

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KT busted and fined for sluggish broadband speeds

 
The Ministry of Science and ICT fined KT 500 million won ($435,000) for not notifying customers that its internet service could be slower than agreed to.
 
KT said it "humbly accepts" the decision and will take measures to make sure that its internet speed is faster and give discounts to customers when the internet speed slows to a certain level more than three times a month.
 
On Wednesday, the Science Ministry analyzed the broadband services of SK Telecom, SK Broadband, KT and LG U+ after a YouTuber claimed that KT’s internet speed was lower than the company promised its customers in its Service Level Agreement (SLA).
 
“I pay 88,000 won for KT’s 10-gigabit subscription plan, and its internet speed is slower than it should be,” the blogger said in a video in April. According to a test he conducted, the internet speed was at 100 Mbps (megabits per second), much slower than the 3 Gbps (gigabits per second) agreed to in the SLA.
 
The ministry assessed the internet speeds of 9,125 users signed up for 10-gigabit-monthly subscriptions with the four telecoms and some users using other subscription plans.
 
According to the analysis, the slow internet was due to KT’s infrastructure maintenance, which is done manually unlike the other companies. Twenty-four other users also suffered slow internet from the same reason.
 
KT was fined for both violating the SLA and delivering a sub-par product. The other three telecoms were not fined even though they failed to deliver contracted speeds because the percentage of such cases was much lower than for KT.
 
KT failed fell short in 11.5 percent of the cases, while that number was 0.2 percent for SK Telecom, 0.1 percent for SK Broadband and 1.1 percent for LG U+. The other three telecoms were given warnings.
 
Following the ministry’s announcement, KT said that it will take actions to address the problem and will also notify users and provide compensation if their internet speeds fall below the 50-percent level more than three times a month.
 
KT will carry out preemptive internet speed measurements and give discounts on monthly payments if the internet speed is below the SLA level from October.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]
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