The unreliability of Wi-Fi in the Seoul subway is due to the increasing number of riders, limited router performance, and low internet speeds. To solve the problem, it is necessary to improve router performance, increase internet speeds, and manage device information, but this can be difficult without the active participation of telecom companies.
The Seoul subway in South Korea has 4.18 million riders per day. That’s about 40% of Seoul’s population riding the subway every day, making it a true public transportation system. The subway isn’t just a mode of transportation, it’s an integral part of the daily lives of Seoul’s residents. Amidst the rush hour crowds, we witness the noise and speed of the subway, as well as the tangle of humanity inside.
But sometimes this trusty public transportation can be frustrating. We’ve all had the experience of wanting to use the internet on the subway, only to find that the Wi-Fi isn’t working and we end up connecting to a paid network. In fact, with the proliferation of smartphones, Wi-Fi has become an essential part of modern life. Coffee shops, public places, and even our homes are all equipped with Wi-Fi, and we’ve come to expect it as a standard part of our daily routine. However, Wi-Fi in the subway often falls short of our expectations. There are three main reasons why subway Wi-Fi doesn’t work so well. To understand these reasons, let’s first talk about routers.
Using the internet is like traveling from home to home. Just as you need to know your house address so you can find each other, you need a unique address to use the internet, called an IP address. But sometimes, like the residents of an apartment building, the first part of the address is the same and the only difference is the lake. These people use an elevator to get from one apartment to another. Similar to the elevator, a router helps users with the same IP address access the internet. There are two main factors that determine how smoothly you can use the internet through a router. One is the router’s performance, which determines how many devices can connect to it. The other is the speed of the internet being fed to the router, which determines the upper limit of individual speeds. The devices connected to the router share the internet, so their individual speeds can’t exceed these values. Think of these factors as the size and speed of an elevator, respectively.
However, this technical explanation doesn’t explain all the problems with Wi-Fi. Beyond technology, there’s also a complex set of human wants and needs. People want fast, reliable internet connections anytime, anywhere, and as expectations rise, the unreliability of subway Wi-Fi becomes more pronounced. We’re all looking for time savings and efficiency in our daily lives, and traveling time on the subway is no exception. We expect to get work done, read the news, and stay connected to social media during this short time. However, when these needs are not met, we feel uncomfortable.
Sometimes the elevator in an apartment building takes a long time. In this situation, we can think about the reasons why Wi-Fi in the subway doesn’t work well. First of all, no matter how big the elevator is in your apartment, it can become a bottleneck if a lot of people use it at the same time. Similarly, the number of people on the subway is a problem. The subway has one router per car, per carrier, per car. In theory, up to 250 users can connect to these routers at the same time. Compared to a home router, which only allows 10 people to connect at the same time, this is a good performance. However, because the internet is shared over a router, the more users there are, the slower each Wi-Fi connection becomes, and the more congested it becomes. If there are more than 300 people in a subway car, like during rush hour, the router’s performance limits can be pushed to the limit and Wi-Fi becomes unusable.
Even if the elevator in your apartment is slow, it will still take a long time to use. The same goes for the speed of the internet feeding the subway router. Internet speeds are usually measured in megabits per second (Mbps), which is the amount of information delivered per second, with wired internet reaching speeds of 100 Mbps and LTE, which is used by smartphones, reaching speeds of 75 Mbps. The subway router is connected to an internet service called WiBro. WiBro is an internet service designed to communicate with devices moving at speeds of up to 120 km/h, which makes it ideal for subway trains traveling at speeds of up to 80 km/h. However, WiBro has a maximum communication speed of 25 Mbps, which is much slower than LTE or wired internet, so subway Wi-Fi will be slower than Wi-Fi on a router connected to LTE or wired internet.
But there’s one more reason that makes subway Wi-Fi even worse. It’s the nature of the router and the time between subway stops. The router stores your device’s information for about two minutes so that it can quickly recover if it inevitably loses connection. This is roughly the same amount of time that passes between stops on the subway, meaning that the router remembers the device information of people who get off or move to a different car for another stop. This creates a problem where new devices recognize the router, but the router doesn’t connect the new devices to the Wi-Fi. A similar situation occurs when people in an apartment building press the elevator button and get on, but the elevator stops at every floor. Meanwhile, even if the router clears the information it has stored after two minutes, it may still fail to connect because new people get on at the next stop. This phenomenon gets worse the more people there are on the subway.
To solve the problem of poor subway Wi-Fi, you need to improve the performance of your router, increase the speed of your internet supply, and adjust the time to save device information. However, increasing the speed requires replacing the Internet service itself, which is very expensive. The more realistic solution is to implement a process to deal with meaningless device information while improving the performance of your router. If your router doesn’t send or receive any information to or from connected devices, you can simply scan them and decide whether to delete them.
Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do to improve your subway Wi-Fi experience in South Korea. The cause of these problems lies with the service provider and the solution lies with them. However, Korean telecommunications companies are offering products such as unlimited plans to take advantage of the current situation, hiding behind the reason that there is little profit in improving subway Wi-Fi. This behavior of ignoring the inconvenience of users and pursuing only profits does not help the Internet industry. The internet industry can only continue to develop if users are happy. It’s time for telecom operators to take responsibility.
