LG Uplus noted that the new offering is part of its long-term strategy to transform into a digital platform service provider
LG Uplus, South Korea’s third-largest wireless operator, recently unveiled its new artificial intelligence (AI) services, local news agency Yonhap reported.
The new offering is part of the telco’s long-term strategy to transform into a digital platform service provider.
The new AI service, dubbed “ixi” offers AI-powered services for sports match predictions, customer call centers, small business management and content recommendations, according to the carrier.
The AI-based service will allow sport fans to receive information of all games at the 2022 World Cup to be held in Qatar from November at the telco’s “SPORKI” platform, while LG Uplus’ Artificial Intelligence Contact Center (AICC) callbot will help local storeowners handle customer phone calls.
Additionally, the new AI offering will help the carrier’s customers select TV series, films and variety shows based on their previous preferences and viewing records.
“Our new brand ‘ixi’ symbolizes our ambition to change our customers’ daily lives with our AI- and data-based services,” said Hwang Kyu-byul, LG Uplus’ chief data officer. “We hope the new brand will expand our customer’s participation in our services.”
LG Uplus had recently announced an initiative to reorganize its current and future key services under four main platform pillars centered on the themes of lifestyle, entertainment, parenting and Web 3.0. As part of this strategy, the telo aims to expand its non-telecom business portfolio to represent up to 40% of the telco’s overall sales by 2027.
The telco is also working to further expand its 5G coverage across the country. In July this year, the operator secured an additional 20 megahertz of spectrum to use for 5G.
The Ministry of Science and ICT confirmed the allocation of the 3.4-3.42 GHz frequency band to LG Uplus, in addition to the 3.42 to 3.5 GHz spectrum that the telecom company bought in 2018.
LG Uplus had previously asked the Korean government for an additional 20 megahertz of spectrum to boost its 5G offerings. In a government spectrum auction in June 2018, rival operators SK Telecom and KT had secured 100 megahertz of spectrum, while LG Uplus had only acquired 80 megahertz.
During a keynote speech at Huawei’s 2022 Mobile Broadband Forum, held this week in Bangkok, Thailand, Yoon Ho Choi, president of XR business department at LG Uplus noted that the company’s 5G coverage had reached 85% of the population in large cities and central rural areas across Korea.
The executive also highlighted that the level of 5G availability at a national level was 90.9% and 95.2% in capital Seoul. He also noted that the average download speed of the telco’s 5G service was 640.7 Mbps.
South Korea was the first country to launch commercial 5G networks in April 2019 and currently has 5G coverage across its 85 cities.
