LG Uplus chief bets on IoT - The Korea Times

By Kim Yoo-chul, Yoon Sung-won

LG Uplus Vice Chairman Lee Sang-chul speaks during a press conference at the Mobile World Congress 2015 in Bacelona, Spain, on Wednesday (KST). / Courtesy of LG Uplus

LG Uplus Vice Chairman Lee Sang-chul said it will beef up ties with global companies to develop the Internet of things (IoT) and next-generation mobile network services.

He said that the key agendas of this year’s MWC were the next-generation network, LTE technology with higher speed and low interference; new IoT systems and the FinTech, the combination of telecom and financial industries.

“To lead the fifth-generation (5G) mobile network, we will strengthen strategic partnership with global companies and concentrate on developing differentiated IoT services and technologies,” Lee said during a press conference at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2015 in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday.

Lee’s remark came as the nation’s smallest mobile carrier pushes ahead with its aggressive strategies in marketing and technological terms to elevate its status in the local market.

“Microsoft has dominated the global IT industry over the past decades. But now changes are coming every three to five years. Companies that successfully make a leap within the term can survive and Google and Amazon are examples,” he said. “Mobile technologies are becoming lighter and their prices are going down by half. Global IT companies like Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei and Cisco are all looking to make money out of this race. It’s tough competition but we need to participate in it.”

He said technology in the future will replace much of human labor and even thinking.

“Information and communication technology, or ICT, will substitute humans,” Lee said. “The Internet and technology will replace humans’ efforts, sensing abilities, logical thinking and, in the long run, emotional thinking. A so-called ‘Internet of Brain’ may come earlier than we expect.”

The vice president said future technology should offer customers five core values, including personalized and optimized information; safe and convenient space; time efficiency; cost-effective shopping experiences; and emotional care.

“Based on the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud and big data technologies, LG Uplus will develop emotional content to offer new life experiences,” Lee said.

At the MWC 2015, LG Uplus exhibited IoT products such as the household appliances control system called “Home Manager” and skin condition diagnosis device “Magic Mirror.” It also unveiled a cheaper machine-to-machine (M2M) modem optimized for IoT.

With the cheaper models in the market, smaller enterprises will be able to cut the development cost for IoT-related products such as drones and automobile solutions, the company said.

LG Uplus also showcased the 5G mobile network technology that supports up to 50-gigabytes-per-second data transmission speed and a new carrier aggregation technology that enables up to four times faster network speed compared with the existing LTE network.