The 21st Busan Fireworks Festival takes place Saturday at Gwangalli Beach

SK Telecom adds 'perceived quality satisfaction' metric to AI monitoring system

Temporary relay facilities and emergency staffing to be deployed

SK Telecom employees install and inspect mobile base stations ahead of the Busan Fireworks Festival, set for Saturday at Gwangalli Beach in Busan. [SK Telecom]
SK Telecom employees install and inspect mobile base stations ahead of the Busan Fireworks Festival, set for Saturday at Gwangalli Beach in Busan. [SK Telecom]

SK Telecom is mobilizing emergency network measures ahead of the 21st Busan Fireworks Festival, scheduled for Saturday at Gwangalli Beach in Busan.

The company announced Thursday that it has drawn up a special communications plan to maintain stable network quality at the event, where large crowds are expected.

This year, SK Telecom has added a "perceived quality satisfaction" metric to its existing AI-based network management system.

The metric measures the proportion of service usage time during which quality remains above a set threshold. It offers a comprehensive picture of the experience customers actually have — tracking whether webpages and content load smoothly without data loss or transmission delays.

The indicator supplements the company's previous quality management approach, which focused primarily on peak speeds, by zeroing in on how stably and consistently customers experience the network in practice.

The perceived quality satisfaction metric breaks down customer service usage into four categories based on traffic characteristics — web browsing, social media, business collaboration and high-definition streaming — allowing the company to detect quality differences across each type.

SK Telecom said it has also improved the resolution of its analysis. Quality degradation is now pinpointed using grid-based GPS coordinates to identify exact problem zones. AI uses location data to distinguish whether customers are traveling by KTX or subway or are at home, enabling the company to monitor and manage network quality according to each customer's actual usage context.

SK Telecom employees install and inspect mobile base stations ahead of the Busan Fireworks Festival, set for Saturday at Gwangalli Beach in Busan. [SK Telecom]
SK Telecom employees install and inspect mobile base stations ahead of the Busan Fireworks Festival, set for Saturday at Gwangalli Beach in Busan. [SK Telecom]

SK Telecom will also set up additional temporary relay facilities, including mobile base stations, in the Marine City area, which offers views of the festival, to handle concentrated traffic.

An emergency operations system will run from Saturday morning through the dispersal of the crowd. The company plans to deploy about 100 personnel drawn from SK Telecom, SK O&S and partner firms.

"We will do everything in our power to ensure that both residents and tourists can fully enjoy the fireworks festival in a stable communications environment," said Jo Uk, head of SK Telecom's eastern network division.

The Busan Fireworks Festival runs Saturday from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m., centered on Gwangalli Beach. Attendance is expected to exceed 1.2 million this year, up from about 1.03 million in 2024 and about 1.17 million last year.

SK Telecom plans to use A-One, its in-house AI wireless network management system, to calculate expected crowd sizes in advance and respond accordingly. The company previously used A-One at the Han River Fireworks Festival in September to optimize the placement of mobile base stations.


sjpark@heraldcorp.com