Chuseok, the autumn harvest festival often likened to Thanksgiving, falls on Sept. 25 this year and sends millions streaming back to their hometowns.
Carriers have added 305 base stations and 32 mobile units at highways, train stations, airports and tourist spots after about 37,000 advance inspections.
SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus will staff 24-hour emergency centers throughout the break and offer free carrier-based video calls to all users, including budget-plan subscribers, from Sept. 24 to 27. About 2.8 million people logged some 310,000 hours of free video calls last Chuseok.
Subscribers behind on their bills will be able to receive calls for up to three months, up from 21 days, while keeping identity verification and phishing and spam blocking. Overdue mobile micropayments will no longer be grounds for suspending service.
Naver Map and Kakao Map will list hospitals, pharmacies and emergency rooms open over the holiday, along with free parking lots. Kakao will send anti-phishing alerts to about 27 million users, warning of scams such as so-called "team mission" schemes.
The holiday is the first Chuseok since Korail absorbed the rival SRT service on Sept. 1, adding about 15,000 weekday seats and cutting fares by an average of 10 percent.
AJP Takeaways
- South Korea's three mobile carriers have tripled network equipment on key KTX routes ahead of the 2026 Chuseok holiday, raising average download speeds by more than 20 percent, the Ministry of Science and ICT said on Sept. 20, 2026.
- SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus added 305 base stations and 32 mobile units nationwide and will offer free carrier video calls to all users from Sept. 24 to 27, 2026.
- The holiday is the first Chuseok since Korail merged the SRT high-speed service into the KTX network on Sept. 1, 2026, a move that cut fares by an average of 10 percent.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.
