Korean mobile carriers explores new business on 5G and data power

South Korea’s wireless carriers are exploring and bolstering new businesses based on their 5G and data power.

KT Corp. added a digital and bio health team to its Future Value task force operating three teams with respective missions of enhancing corporate image, promoting customer-centered innovation and nurturing talents. The TF is under the direct control of its CEO Koo Hyun-mo.

KT has teamed up with the country’s major general hospitals Asan Medical Center, Samsung Medical Center and GC Healthcare to look for new business opportunities. The company also plans to export its infection tracking app Global Epidemic Prevention Platform (GEPP) to wider countries overseas.

SK Telecom has been also running Junior Board under its service committee since July. The board consisting of employees in their 20s and 30s was launched to experiment services prior to their official releases. “We need to get permission from the Junior Board that represents digital generation familiar with using mobile apps,” SKT President Park Jung-ho said.

The Junior Board that has total 38 members from various affiliates gave the nod to the company’s 5GX Cloud Game released last month and subscription-based healthcare service Care8 DNA. The board is expected to play a bigger role in launching new 5G services targeting millennial and Z generations.

LG Uplus in July established Smart Education division under the direct control of vice chairman Ha Hyun-hoi. The division that handles all of the business processes on its own ranging from finding customer needs and product planning to app development and operation recently released a new online homeschool program.

It was the first time for the company to launch a separate team under the control of CEO to release new services, according to a company official who added that the company is poised to expand its education business.

Mobile carriers are aggressively seeking for new growth engine services in the digital and technology sector by forming dedicated business divisions. “The sound earnings of the wireless carriers this year have been mostly made from non-communication business that is expected to grow bigger in the future to account for more than half of their business portfolio,” according to an industry official.

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