Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Swampfox10mm]

I wish I had contracted with a different internet provider than SK.

I bumped into the nice guy from SK who installed my internet, as he's often here installing for other people. His English isn't that great, but good enough for us to communicate (my Korean isn't much better).

We talked about the cable being cut in Japan, and he didn't have an answer about when it would be fixed. Based on the way he talked, though, it didn't sound very promising that anything would get better anytime soon. He said that LG is also affected.

When I told him that my Galaxy S phone has been pretty much unaffected by the cable cut, and then asked why the home internet, which follows basically the same tracert path out of Korea was slow, he didn't have an answer other than to say "but that's 3G, it's a different connection."

I pretty much sensed the kind avoidance of the truth. I see that SK is squelching internet usage to high-volume sites like YouTube and Skype (to all but higher-paying connections, like my phone) and using the Japan Tsunami as an excuse to do so. It makes no sense at all why my phone internet would be far faster to use Skype or YouTube unless SK were squelching certain connections. Calls to have them fix it have been met with "We checked and your home connection is OK- any problems are due to Japan." Bologna. I get pings in the 400+ range and can download YouTube at barely 56k. Can't even do video over Skype and keep a conversation going.

I am severely disappointed in what has happened to the overseas internet speed with SK Telecom. I wish I were with another provider. Speeds at my friend's cable TV connection are pretty much normal. He can YouTube and Skype the same as before. Same at his Kindergarten, where they also access via a Cable TV provider.

Interestingly, speeds at my university were just fine until this past week (quite some time after the Tsunami). Now the provider for my school seems to be slowing down overseas traffic, too.

I don't buy that this is just a Japan problem due to the Tsunami. I think much of this is being done on purpose to control usage of overseas sites for bandwidth and plain old protectionist reasons.

Very angry.

[vDroop]

So switch to KT?

KT will pay the cancellation fee of your current contract. I did this last year. Just get a Korean to help you on the phone for a couple minutes.

[sheriffadam]

yah, vote with your feet/wallet

Isn't it likely this guy you spoke to at KT is just the guy at the end of the chain of command, I'm sure he isn't updated hourly on sub ocean internet lines. Unless the CEO of SK is the guy fixing your modem? He wasn't avoiding the question he just doesn't know and Korean culture got in the way of him saying 'yes my company is shit' and he has to defend them?

Wherever you're from is very different to Korea, I remember the guy from my cable company back home telling me how to cheat the system as he installed the box for me

[Meow?]

Last week, a representative (I assume) of SK called me (and maybe many more random KT users... I assume), telling me how their service is cheaper if I switch to them.

This afternoon, I got a long text message from KT thanking me for sticking with them.

QOOK has been good to me over the years (despite my constant complains on almost every little thing).