By In a country known as the World’s Most Wired Country, it is an absolute disgrace that AAFES cannot provide adequate Internet service to USFK servicemembers due to corruption and incompetence:
The “seamless” transition that AAFES officials forecast from one Internet firm to another in South Korea is turning out to be anything but.
There is confusion over which company will replace Concordia Co. Ltd. as a subcontractor to LG Dacom. LG Dacom holds an Army and Air Force Exchange Service contract to provide home Internet, phone and cell phone service to U.S. military communities in South Korea.
Last week, Larry Marshall, an official at AAFES headquarters in Dallas, told Stars and Stripes NEO Communication Co. Ltd. would replace Concordia to provide customer service for LG Dacom. “Internet, telephone and cell phone services provided by LG Dacom all remain the same, and the transition to NEO Communication for customer service is expected to be seamless when completed early this month,” Marshall said in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes Dec. 4. He said NEO had begun providing service on Nov. 21.
Sources familiar with the AAFES Internet and phone contract have since told Stars and Stripes that Concordia has been replaced by a company named CIC Korea and that NEO never began providing services.
Pacific-based AAFES officials confirmed Monday that NEO would not be the replacement company. “We are hearing that CIC is, or will be, the contractor, and that NEO will not be the contractor,” AAFES Pacific region spokesman Master Sgt. Donovan Potter said. He said AAFES officials in the Pacific could not provide further details about CIC Korea or the changeover and that he had to query his Dallas headquarters overnight to seek clarification.
LG Dacom got the contract in January 2007 and brought in Concordia Co. Ltd. to handle customer service, collection and billing.
But AAFES recently moved to drop Concordia because of “an apparent business relationship” with Jeong Gi-hwan, an executive convicted in South Korean court this year of bribing AAFES officials. Jeong is chief executive of Internet firm SSRT, also known as Samsung Rental Corp. Ltd. AAFES has said Jeong is also listed in South Korean corporate registration documents as a director of Concordia.
LG Dacom official Dustin Ji refused to comment on the situation and said Monday that AAFES has forbidden the company from speaking to Stars and Stripes. [Stars & Stripes]
I have to wonder if this CIC Korea company has connections to Jeong Gi-hwan or anyone else with SSRT? This fiasco reminds me of when juicy girl bars are put off limits and the club’s owner transfer ownership of the club to his cousin and changes the clubs name to be put back on limits but the shady practices continue.
I have to give props to Stars & Stripes for following this story because literally no one else has been reporting on this despite the fact millions of dollars are involved and USFK servicemembers are being directly screwed over by this fiasco.
6:09 am on December 10th, 2008 1
I don’t know why they don’t just scrap the whole deal and start from scratch. Who advises USFK on these matters? Am I the only person my installation who’s able to call the LG DACOM services as they are: effing junk?
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7:53 am on December 10th, 2008 2
How about we take donations of unused wireless routers, toss on some directional antennas, mount them on an off-base roof with line-of-sight to Osan dorms and chip in on a high speed Internet connection?
I’m sure there are some networking experts around here who can set up a working system for very little money. In fact, with some downloaded freeware and two Linksys routers, repeaters can be set up in rooms all across base.
I’m not really kidding about this.
How long would it be before LG Dacom complained that people were canceling their overpriced (and over-monitored) service to use the free system. How long would it be before whoever is protecting the LG Dacom monopoly did everything in their power to get our free Internet blocked?
One thing I liked about university more than the Air Force is this would have already been done by some engineering geeks. Airmen roll over waaaaaay to easy.
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2:53 pm on December 10th, 2008 3
What you’re suggesting sounds too much like the service I paid to use in Iraq, established an maintained by a KBR pot-smoker with a big satellite dish, who charged desperate folks like me $80 per month.
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7:31 pm on December 10th, 2008 4
I heard the new 3 star at Osan was complaining about how slow the internet was in his residence via AAFES internet. Heard was surprised because he’d heard how great the internet service was in Korea before he got here. Damn, if a 3 star can’t do anything to make AAFES get their act together… Why does AAFES let the Koreans walk all over them?
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12:36 pm on December 11th, 2008 5
Unsatisfied LG DACOM Victim,
“Airmen roll over waaaaaay to easy.”
One Linksys router, with 50 wireless connections, means that the pothead KBR contactor should only be getting a dollar sixty per person per month.
Sure, if everybody wants to download music and movies, that won’t be cool. But, that is was delegation is all about. One guy downloads content on request while everybody else just looks at low-bandwidth news, sports and smutt.
That’s why I take a leadership role in whatever situation I am in. Almost everybody else is an ineffective fcuk-up (including many 3-stars — which is where I will be someday).
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