By Yoon Sung-won
SK Telecom said Wednesday that it will establish a nationwide network dedicated to Internet of Things (IoT) services.
The telecom company also said it will invest more than 100 billion won ($83.78 million) by 2017 in order to boost its IoT business.
“Through our IoT strategy that encompasses networks, platforms and devices, SK Telecom will lead the growth of the IoT industry,” SK Telecom Chief Operating Officer Lee Hyung-hee said in a statement. “Our forward-looking efforts will also contribute to the creation of an enriched IoT ecosystem where developers, startups and small businesses can easily build diverse IoT services that can bring new and differentiated value for customers.”
Under its comprehensive IoT business strategy, SK Telecom said it plans to build a nationwide low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) within this year, develop IoT-dedicated modules and upgrade its IoT platform dubbed ThingPlug.
The plans follow the government’s aggressive move to promote the IoT industry as one of the nation’s new growth sectors.
In particular, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning has decided to revise the maximum transmit power for the 900-megahertz frequency band, aimed at boosting the IoT industry here. SK Telecom said this will help telecom operators overcome limits caused by low transmission power and secure the basis for various new IoT services.
The company said the LPWAN is a type of telecommunications network designed to support communication among IoT devices. As it can transmit data over tens of kilometers while consuming much less power, many companies around the globe are actively developing the LPWAN technologies and launching related services.
Once established nationwide, the LPWAN is expected to enable diverse new business models including metering, location tracking, monitoring and control services, the company said.
Earlier in July 2015, SK Telecom joined the LoRa Alliance to discuss standardization of the LPWA network. The LoRa Alliance is a non-profit association hosted by industry leaders dedicated to driving the global success of the LoRa protocol (LoRaWAN) by sharing knowledge and experience to guarantee one open global standard among operators.
Along with the nationwide LPWAN deployment, SK Telecom said it will establish an IoT control center to manage network equipment and IoT devices.
The center will monitor realtime status of the nationwide IoT network and all connected devices to optimize operations. The center will also diagnose IoT security to urge IoT service providers to follow security guidelines starting at the product planning stage, measure the security level of developed or altered systems and remove security weaknesses.
SK Telecom will also develop modules that can be embedded in IoT devices and open the application programming interfaces of these modules to third-party companies. To further support startups and small and medium-sized enterprises, the telecom company will provide IoT modules free of charge, allowing them to test their services under a lower entry barrier.