By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff reporter
LG Uplus, formerly known as LG Telecom, is aiming to reap 10 trillion won ($8.2 billion) in annual sales by 2014, with its focus on smartphone services.
LG Group's telecom unit is expected to reach 1 trillion won in annual operating profit in four years time.
Investments will be geared for better wireless-linked capabilities.
"LG Uplus will expand wireless telecommunication infrastructure and boost broadband lines," Lee Sang-chul, chief executive of the company said in a news conference at a Seoul hotel, Thursday.
The name change follows LG Telecom's merger with its fixed-line affiliates LG Dacom and LG Powercom this year in a bid to boost profit and enhance synergy.
"It's true that LG is making a late start in the smartphone market. But we don't worry too much about the number of smartphone models," Lee told reporters.
Many of the reporters' questions were related to LG’s smartphone business, which is far behind Samsung and Apple.
Lee said the company will sell Samsung Electronics' Galaxy L smartphone in Korea from July and added it has seen impressive sales of its strategic Optimus Q and Max phones since their launch this year.
"We've already secured 200,000 smartphone customers. Major handset makers including LG Electronics and Pantech are asking us to sell more advanced models," Lee said, confirming LG is planning to launch a total of 10 new smartphones by the end of this year.
The models will mostly use Google-powered Android mobile platform.
It forecasts smartphones will take up 40 percent of the company's handset sales by the end of this year.
The top executive said it will start the advanced long-term evolution (LTE) service based on fourth-generation technology from 2012, but initially in metropolitan areas. Compared to the 3G service, LTE offers better speed and mobility.
"As part of the consistent corporate move to bring more wireless-related revenue, LG Uplus plans to open our Wi-Fi networks to customers who are using other telecom services. But we need to narrow the differences before an actual implementation," Lee said.
When asked on its new revenue sources, Lee said the company is looking at around 20 services utilizing telecom services in new ways.
"The one thing that I want to make clear is that we are intending to develop business models based on the Cloud operating system amid the industry's convergence move."
The company has already said it will introduce price-friendly charging services in a bid to boost the number of its subscribers and Lee said a possible fall in its operating profit will be offset by a series of new billing plans that will draw a large number of new subscribers.
It has begun offering a maximum 50-percent discount to subscribers who sign up to the company’s ``Yo’’ and ``OZ 070’’ services.
The mobile operator posted an operating profit of 582.7 billion won in the first quarter while sales were 2.42 trillion won.