By Yoon Ja-young
Korean telecommunications giant KT will partner Cisco, the global communications equipment and systems provider, to realize technologically-advanced metropolitan environments as seen in science-fiction movies.
The two firms will set up a joint venture to build ``smart spaces’’ around the Asia Pacific region by integrating cutting-edge information and communications technologies with urban development.
KT has a wealth of experience in setting up and operating communications infrastructure and platforms, while Cisco is an international heavyweight in equipment, information technology (IT) solutions and systems.
KT Chairman Lee Seok-chae and Cisco CEO John Chambers jointly announced the agreement on the joint venture, dubbed KC Smart Service (KCSS), with Chambers participating through what Cisco described as “Telepresence,” a high definition video conference solution, from the company’s headquarters in the United States.
KCSS will engage in designing urban areas where buildings, roads, transportation networks and parks are applied with IT solutions and interconnected through networks. Funded with $30 million in capital, the new company will have over $60 million in corporate value as KT will be providing it with business opportunities and personnel on top of transferring technology.
“It will be a meaningful start to show the citizens around the world what the smart era is like,” Lee said. The two companies will also be cooperating in the global business-to-business (B2B) sector, and cloud computing. KT is expecting to see a boost in its globalization efforts as Cisco has a strong global operation network.
“We both view the market transition in the same way,” Chambers said. He noted that in this new era of technology convergence, the competition is no longer between countries but cities competing with each other.
When an area is made a smart space, one can automatically control the temperature, humidity and lighting, and can look at the city’s transportation system at the integrated control center. Users can register entry and exit and receive parking information on smart devices. “In a smart space, you raise the value of the city by adding IT. The value of a city rises by 30 percent when equipped with good IT infrastructure,” said Kim Hong-jin, KT vice president in charge of the corporate customer division.
It will first target 14 countries in the Asia Pacific region, including China, Japan and countries in Southeast Asia, providing “smart city,” “smart building” and “smart tenant” services.
The smart city service includes building up IT infrastructure within an urban center and setting up an integrated control center, as well as managing and controlling transportation, safety, electricity, firefighting, and public facilities through IT. Smart building includes expanding the wired and wireless network infrastructure for a building along with creating an information and automation system there. The smart tenant service targets owners or tenants of a building, providing parking and energy management on top of security services.
KCSS is aiming at over $100 billion won in annual sales from 2014, and the outlook is positive as 500 million people are expected to urbanize in the next few years.
“Each time we’ve worked together, it was win-win for both of us.” Chambers said that KT and Cisco will go global together to make many advances. “Together, I think we can have a great impact on the market.”