Network equipment failure causes nationwide online transit payment disruption

This photo shows a ticketing screen in a bus terminal saying Online ticket reservations were not available due to malfunctions in the T-money ticketing services Oct 27 2024 Yonhap — A notice of T-money service's malfunction is posted at a bus terminal in the eastern city of Gangneung on Oct. 27, 2024. Yonhap

SEOUL, October 28 (AJP) - LG CNS, South Korea's major IT service provider, confirmed Monday a network equipment failure at its data center in Bupyeong, west of Seoul, triggered a nationwide outage of the T-money transit payment system over the weekend.

The disruption, which lasted about 90 minutes on Sunday afternoon, left passengers unable to purchase bus tickets at terminals and pay on the T-money mobile app across the country.

"We identified the system error at 1:06 p.m. Sunday and normalized services by 2:39 p.m. after addressing the network equipment issue," an LG CNS official said. The company is currently investigating the root cause of the malfunction.

T-money, one of South Korea's largest transportation payment systems, processes electronic fare payments for buses, subways and other public transportation services nationwide.

Kim Dong-young davekim0807@ajupress.com