I was wondering about the continuing connection between the current AAFES Internet contractor LG Dacom and the disgraced SSRT and it appears someone at USFK and AAFES has finally noticed too:
An Internet firm with ties to a South Korean businessman convicted of bribing AAFES officials is being dropped from doing business with the U.S. military.
The firm, Concordia Co. Ltd., also known as CDI, is a subcontractor of another Korean firm, LG Dacom.
LG Dacom provides home Internet and phone service to U.S. military customers under contract with the Army and Air Force Exchange Service and Concordia handles customer service for that business, according to AAFES.
But AAFES will drop Concordia as a subcontractor because of “an apparent business relationship” with businessman Jeong Gi-hwan, AAFES officials have told Stars and Stripes.
Jeong was convicted in a South Korean court in January on charges he interfered with international trade by bribing AAFES officials. The bribes helped his Internet firm, SSRT, hold the lucrative AAFES Internet and phone service contract. SSRT is also known as Samsung Rental Corp. Ltd.
Federal agents arrested Jeong in Dallas on Nov. 19 on charges stemming from the SSRT case.
He’s being held in a low-security federal prison outside Dallas pending further action in the case. He’s charged with bribery, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit bribery. [Stars & Stripes]
It just makes you wonder why it took so long for someone to figure this out?
12:37 pm on December 4th, 2008 1
Had to allow enough time for people involved to PCS out or retire.
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2:09 pm on December 4th, 2008 2
Will the speed and stability of my internet connection suddenly not suck because of this? Will the price of my internet and telephone become competitive with services offered off-post? Will the twits running the LG DACOM stand at the PX now suddenly know something about the services that they’re selling?
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4:40 pm on December 4th, 2008 3
{shaking magic 8-ball} Survey says: don’t count on it, my sources say no, and outlook not so good.
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4:54 pm on December 4th, 2008 4
If not, then what’s the point? Korea Telecom used to provide services on-post. Bring them back. At least they’re a real company (or nationalized corporation) and not something that a couple old Koreans dreamed up for access to the Seongnam golf course.
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9:03 pm on December 4th, 2008 5
If you’re at Osan, then I *think* you can partially blame the base network infrastructure for some of the problems. While I was there, I was told that the fiber and copper run through the equipment used by the 51st and, the 51st only allocated so much bandwidth for SSRT. If true, there’s another implication in this; even though you’re using a “commercial” service, Big Brother can (and probably does) monitor what sites you visit since you’re technically using government lines and equipment. As for the twits behind the counter, they’ve been twits as long as I’ve been here, even back during the days when they were in the old minimall.
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8:21 am on December 5th, 2008 6
The only thing that should matter is if you are getting what you were promised on your service lease agreement. Are you getting what you paid for?
ISP agreements should specify the bandwidth of your connection. If you are paying for a broadband service that was advertised as 300 MB/s plus and you never get more than 80 MB/s+ when doing a speed test, then the provider is not living up to their end of the agreement. They should either fix it or refund and amend the agreement.
Whether they are not allocated enough bandwidth from the underlying network infrastructure should not be the customer’s concern.
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