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| KT chairman Hwang Chang-gyu talks about the company's future during his first official press conference at a KT office in downtown Seoul, Tuesday. / Yonhap |
By Yoon Sung-won
KT Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu pledged Tuesday to nurture five promising sectors.
During a press conference at its office in downtown Seoul, Hwang talked about five core fields ― smart energy, integrated safety, next-generation media, life-enhancing care and networked transportation.
"KT will blend the information and communications technology with other fields to open the era of ‘GiGAtopia,' the notion that everything is connected through fast and ubiquitous networks," Hwang said. "I believe strengthening competence in telecom should be the top priority because it has plenty of room for growth. On the basis of strength in telecom, we will provide better services in other sectors, too."
Expectations were high as it was the first time for Hwang to speak out in an official press conference since he took office in January. Amid a series of unfavorable incidents including prosecution's investigation over the former executives, first-ever deficit in the firm's history and personal information leakage of over 9 million customers, he refrained from external exposure and focused on internal restructuring.
"I'd like to apologize again for failing to meet people's expectation on us," the chairman said referring to the past incidents. "As a leader, I am willing to bear painstaking efforts in restoring KT's competence and take full responsibility on the company."
Hwang said KT will invest 4.5 trillion won in improving both wired and wireless internet infrastructure in the next three years.
The new wired internet connection called "GiGA FHHT" has up to 10-times faster internet connection than the existing ones. The wireless technology dubbed as "GiGA Path" uses the Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile technology and gigabyte-class WiFi connection at the same time to guarantee a tripled speed.
"Multiple European telecom companies showed interest in these internet infrastructure technologies and KT has been talking to them for contracts of cooperation," Hwang said. "Starting from Europe, I believe KT can achieve favorable results soon in the global market."
The chairman said KT is under discussion with several domestic and foreign companies for businesses overseas, though he added that he cannot elaborate on that.
KT also plans to link the upgraded internet technology to media content, big data analysis and cloud computing.
Within this year, the company will present a new mobile video transmit technology that has 10 times clearer broadcasting capability than the current DMB for the first time in the world. The new technology will be available starting from Seoul's downtown areas around June and in the city's subways in later this year, the chairman said.
An ultra-high definition (UHD) television service will also be available within the year, KT said.
The firm is set to work with its media subsidiaries including KT Media Hub and KT SkyLife. But the chairman said he is not yet planning to restructure these companies.
KT will come up with new businesses in energy management, housing and security control, traffic control and healthcare sector. It also aims to promote its Internet to Things (IoT) service which helps users to control objects through network.
Once the service is standardized, the IoT technology is expected to improve the country's response system in emergencies, Hwang explained.
"It's been about five months since the inauguration and many unexpected incident happened," Hwang said. "I think it's a bit early to say a significant improvement. But we can overcome the obstacles in our way to lead the global mobile and telecom industry."
