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Staff Reporter
Lee Sang-chul, chief executive of LG Telecom, the smallest of Korea's three mobile-phone carriers, said it would be crucial for the company to grow beyond its traditional telecommunications boundaries. When asked about the specific strategies, however, the newly named boss didn't have much to say.
Meeting with reporters at LG Telecom's headquarters in Seoul, Wednesday, Lee announced ``post telecommunications'' as a corporate theme for the company, which recently established a special team to explore business opportunities and identify potential partners in other sectors. The new team is currently working on 20 or more projects, some of which could enter operation this year. The company is even considering changing its name to lose ``telecom," Lee said.
However, Lee wasn't specific about the opportunities the company sees in other industries, as the news conference was full of analogies and references, but not enough detail to write home about.
Other LG Telecom officials hinted that collaboration with companies in device manufacturing and systems integration (SI) could be possibilities.
``We want to become a company like Apple and Hong Kong IPTV operator PCCW,'' Lee said.
``Apple came up with the Mac when the personal computer market was declining, introduced iPod when the music player market was a `red ocean' and now is revolutionizing the mobile experience again with the iPhone. The company has been consistent in allowing consumers to create their own values and this has been the source of their innovations.
``PCCW has said that their broadband television services were in fact not television at all. If they tried to make everything to resemble a television service, they would not have been able to deliver what the consumers really want.''
LG Telecom merged with LG Dacom and LG Powercomm last year to create a company with annual revenue of about 8 trillion won (about $7 billion). Despite adding size, however, the company still struggles to compete with its bigger rivals KT and SK Telecom.
thkim@koreatimes.co.kr
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