KT to build public safety network in Seoul, Gyeonggi Province

KT's unmanned airship, called Skyship, demonstrates how it would respond to a marine accident. The telecom firm unveiled the Skyship platform in June, saying it will help reduce the response time for search-and-rescue operations in the early stage. / Courtesy of KT

By Jun Ji-hye

KT was selected as a preferred bidder to construct a government-led public safety network in major areas including Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, the company said Thursday.

SK Telecom was also chosen as a preferred bidder but it will build the network in fewer areas.

Under the 1.7 trillion won ($1.5 billion) LTE-based public safety network (PS-LTE) project led by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, KT, the second-largest mobile carrier, will construct the national disaster safety communications network in Area A, which includes Seoul, Daegu, Daejeon and Jeju Island, and Area B, which includes Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, Gangwon Province, North and South Jeolla Provinces.

Area A was allocated a budget of 402.6 billion won, while 312.1 billion won budget was allocated to Area B.

KT and SK Telecom were neck-and-neck in the race to win Area A and Area B.

SK Telecom, the top mobile carrier, won Area C, which includes Busan, Ulsan, South Gyeongsang Province, Incheon and North Chungcheong Province. A 187.8 billion won budget was allocated to Area C.

LG Uplus, the smallest player, participated in the bidding, but to no avail.

KT said, "As we won Area A, we took on the role of control tower, tasked with comprehensively managing the entire project."

The firm said it will give its utmost efforts to carry out the project successfully through keen cooperation with other companies.

Once established, the public safety networks will be used by more than 300 institutions including police and fire stations and the Coast Guard as well as local governments and military.

Currently, police and fire stations and the Coast Guard use different communication networks, which makes it difficult for them to share disaster situation information.

The PS-LTE will work together with LTE-Railway (LTE-R) and LTE-Marine (LTE-M), referring to railway and maritime wireless communication networks, respectively.

This will enable institutions to promptly share information at disaster sites and send high quality wireless images to one another.

The government is aiming to eliminate multiple management points and establish a unified disaster management and rescue system.

In a bid to better respond to accidents or natural disasters, KT unveiled its disaster and safety management platform, dubbed Skyship platform, embedded with the Skyscan system using mobile phone signals, in June.

At the time, the firm said the platform will contribute significantly to reducing the response time for search and rescue operations in the early stage.

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