Science ministry runs joint disaster drill to keep phone and card services alive

The science ministry said Friday it held a joint drill with the country's four major telecom operators to test how quickly phone calls, internet access and card payments can be kept running when a complex disaster knocks out networks.

The 2026 broadcast and telecom complex-disaster safety exercise took place at KT's Guro station and at government buildings in Seoul and Sejong, the Ministry of Science and ICT said. KT, SK Telecom, LG Uplus and SK Broadband took part alongside police, fire, military and local government units.

The scenario assumed a drone attack set off fires and power failures that paralyzed telecom facilities, with further strikes spreading outages across several carriers' services at once. Police, firefighters, soldiers and local officials moved first on rescue, firefighting and protection of network sites, while the operators tested procedures for containing the damage and restoring service quickly.

The operators demonstrated temporary internet and IPTV restoration using mobile base stations and 5G networks, and checked disaster roaming, which lets subscribers use another carrier's wireless network, and emergency Wi-Fi open to users regardless of which operator they pay. In a further scenario, card payments at small businesses were cut off by a fixed-line internet failure, and the drill demonstrated supporting payments through smartphone tethering.

In a discussion exercise, participants shared damage and recovery conditions in real time and reviewed the response system for minimizing damage through rapid decision-making and government-wide support. Vice Premier and Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon directed the drill as head of the central accident response headquarters, with discussions focused on securing essential communications for emergency rescue and medical services, supplying recovery personnel and equipment, providing alternative communications in affected areas and keeping the public informed.

"Communications infrastructure is core infrastructure that supports people's daily lives and economic activity and the AI basic society, and it is important to maintain communications services as much as possible and restore them quickly even in various disaster situations," Bae said.

He added that improvements identified in the drill would be reflected in the actual disaster response system and that cooperation among relevant agencies and carriers would be strengthened to minimize inconvenience and damage to the public.