▲ A magnificent autumn night of fireworks... The Seoul International Fireworks Festival held at Yeouido Hangang Park
South Korea's three major mobile carriers—SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus—announced today (September 2) that they are implementing special communication operation measures for the Seoul International Fireworks Festival 2026, which will be held on the 5th around Yeouido Hangang Park and Ichon Hangang Park.
Based on last year's actual measurement data, SK Telecom has predicted this year's event traffic and expanded fixed facilities in areas such as the Yeouido Hangang Park cruise dock, clock tower, and Yeouinaru, while additionally deploying temporary facilities like mobile base stations and electric vehicle base stations to operate its communication network.
The company is applying its self-developed AI operation system, "A-One," to respond to the event.
By integrating wireless access network operations into a single AI system, it automatically senses event information in real time, while the AI predicts communication quality and traffic to automatically determine the number and location of mobile base stations.
The AI analyzes the expected number of spectators, the number of its own subscribers, and the capacity and load rates of existing equipment to determine whether reinforcement is necessary and recommends optimal installation locations.
SK Telecom explained that this AI-based operation has reduced the time required to analyze events and establish response plans from five days to 30 minutes.
KT has conducted communication quality checks along major movement routes, including the Yeouido Hangang Park area and nearby subway stations, and pre-emptively expanded the capacity of surrounding base stations.
It has also additionally deployed mobile base stations to secure network capacity.
In particular, KT is utilizing 5G network slicing technology to help organizers receive CCTV footage from all over the event venue without delay.
5G network slicing is a technology that divides a single 5G network into multiple virtual networks to provide more stable communication quality for specific services.
The company recently used this technology during World Cup street cheering events to enable stable communication essential for event operations—such as radio-like communication, on-site situation sharing, and emergency response contacts—even when crowds surged.
LG Uplus has also entered an emergency operation system, anticipating that about 1 million people will visit the site during the event period from the 4th to the 5th.
Ahead of the event, the company additionally built mobile base stations and temporary equipment and conducted wireless network optimization work to increase wireless traffic capacity.
It has also completed pre-event call quality measurements and network inspections to prepare for the generation of large-scale traffic.
Furthermore, through its AI-based autonomous network platform "AION," it plans to pre-emptively respond to base station overloads and automatically control traffic.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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