Kim Hyun-bin began his journalism career at Arirang TV from 2012 to 2017, specializing in defense, foreign affairs and the economy. In 2018, he joined The Korea Times, covering society and business, and is currently responsible for embassy affairs.
LG Uplus leads efforts to export 5G content through partnerships
LG Uplus models try out the newly launched AR glasses "U+ Real Glass", which weighs in at just 88 grams. The glasses will be available starting Aug. 21. / Courtesy of LG Uplus
By Kim Hyun-bin
By Kim Hyun-bin
LG Uplus has been upping the ante among local competitors in the 5G content market, successfully increasing its export volume by more than that of SK Telecom and KT and has been partnering up with global telecom companies to create innovative VR, AR content.
As one of the three mobile carriers that launched the world's first commercial 5G network in April, 2019, LG Uplus has heavily invested in developing more content that runs on the next-generation network, which promises low latency and speeds up to 20 times faster than LTE.
LG Uplus continues to lead efforts to establish a 5G ecosystem through its diverse content and investments especially in virtual reality that can be used for a variety of content including entertainment, education, home training and games.
Through partnerships the company aims to create key contents in the AR, VR sector.
LG Uplus has formed an AR, VR contents investment alliance with foreign telecom companies which has been dubbed the “XR Alliance” with the goal of developing excellent content.
“The key to the XR alliance is to jointly invest in AR·VR to produce good content for users and then use the profits to re-invest in developing further new content and through it we plan to expand the eco-system,” said Kim Jun-hyung, vice president of 5G Service Group at LG Uplus during an online conference, Monday.
Global telecom companies Bell Canada, KDDI (Japan) and China Mobile are taking part in the alliance as well as Qualcomm, Atlas V and Felix & Paul Studios as partner firms.
The alliance is scheduled to hold one meeting a month to decide on the investments in the field and the content developed will be exclusively provided to partner firms.
“The alliance will not only expand the ecosystem but will enhance the content competitiveness for partner firms. We only allow one telecom company from each country to take part and for Korea LG Uplus will be providing content developed by XR alliance,” said Choi Yoon-ho, vice president of AR/VR service unit at LG Uplus.
So far, the company has been successful in racking in $10 million in sales just in the 5G VR sector this year, and as of October, LG ranked fourth in the world in such content exports behind China Telecom, Hong Kong Telecom and Japan's KDDI.
LG Uplus CEO Ha Hyun-hwoi
LG Uplus is working on exporting its 5G network-based content and technological know-how to overseas carriers in an effort to create a more competitive business model and expand its presence.
“More countries are commercializing 5G networks, which increases the opportunity to export our technology and content. We believe there will be a drastic increase in 5G subscribers, so we are focused on developing AR, VR and other 5G content,” an LG U Plus official said.
LG Uplus is in collaboration with U.S. AR and VR platform developer Spatial to create a remote AR meeting system, which is set to be released in the latter half of the year, enabling a 3D video conference that only seemed possible in sci-fi movies in the past.
In collaboration with Felix & Paul Studios, which developed the Cirque du Soleil VR, filmed with a fourth generation VR camera and providing a 14-minute spectacular VR experience, LG was able to sign a deal with Japan's KDDI to export the innovative content in April.
In June, LG inked a deal with Chunghwa Telecom, the largest telecom company in the Republic of China, delivering 180 K-pop related VR content with multi-view options.
Following an export deal for 5G content to China Telecom last year, LG Uplus also signed a deal with Hong Kong Telecommunications in March to supply 5G-based VR content. Based on the deals, the company is now in talks with telecommunications companies from Europe and Southeast Asia that plan to launch 5G services soon.
Earlier this week, LG Uplus launched AR glasses dubbed "U+ Real Glass" in partnership with Chinese mixed-reality product developer Nreal and chipmaker Qualcomm, boosting its 5G services in the wearable AR market.
The world's first 5G-based glass device weighing in at 88 grams will be available starting Aug. 21, while an AR studio is scheduled to open in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, within the year.
Earlier, LG Uplus announced it would invest 2.6 trillion won ($2.1 billion) over the next five years in producing content for 5G networks.
In July, SKT inked a deal with Hewlett Packard Enterprise to export its 5G Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) technology overseas.
The consortium offers MEC-related hardware and software to foreign carriers, with SKT in charge of the software and HPE taking care of providing hardware and other infrastructure, and operating and maintaining local businesses.
SKT is currently in talks with Malaysian and Thai telecommunication companies regarding supply contracts, and plans to expand to North America and Europe.