LG Uplus

LG Uplus Corp.
Native name
Korean: LG유플러스
Public
Traded as KRX: 032640
Industry Telecommunications
Predecessor LG Telecom
Founded July 11, 1996 (1996-07-11)
Headquarters Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Area served
South Korea
Key people
Lee Sang Chul CEO
Products Mobile telephony,
Wireless broadband services
Revenue KRW 7.8 trillion (2013)
KRW 542.1 billion (2013)
Number of employees
4,987 (As of October 31, 2009)
Parent LG Corporation
Subsidiaries AIN Teleservice
CS Leader
Website LG U+</sup>

LG Uplus Corp. (Korean: LG유플러스; stylized as LG U+, KRX: 032640) is a South Korean cellular carrier owned by LG Corporation, Korea's fourth largest conglomerate[1] and parent company of the LG Electronics. It was formerly known as LG Telecom.

The carrier adopted its current name after the July 2010 merger with another two LG telecommunication subsidiaries, Dacom and Powercom. LG U+ offers a variety of mobile services. BankOn is one of the most popular Mobile banking services in South Korea and MusicOn is a music e-store.

History

After decision of Korea Telecom, the state-owned phone company to sell its cellular business to private investors in 1994, the South Korean government opened the telecommunications sector up to competition. LG entered the wireless communications market in 1996 by acquiring a CDMA license in June and founded a new carrier named LG Telecom, which built a nationwide digital cellular network. In October 1997, PCS cellular service was launched.[2]

In March 1998, in an effort to make itself stand out from the bigger, more established players in the market, LG Telecom launched the world's first commercial cdmaOne data service using PCS technology.[3]

To better position itself to compete in the bundled services market LG Telecom acquired LG Dacom, a fixed-line communications networks and Internet-related service provider and LG Powercom, one of Korea's largest ISPs.[4][5] On July 1, 2010, LG Telecom switched to its current name, "LG U+."

Services

Wireless

As of 2012 LG Uplus customers can receive the services on any of radio frequency band assigned, one or more of radio interfaces.[6]

Radio frequency range Frequency band Frequency
width
(MHz)
Generation Radio Interface License Notes
850 MHz (839-849, 884-894) 5 20 3.9G LTE
1800 MHz (1770-1780, 1860-1870) 20 3G CDMA/EVDO Rev-A/Rev-B until June 2021
2100 MHz (1920-1930, 2110-2120) 1 20 3.9G LTE auction 44.55billion won
2600 MHz (2520-2540, 2640-2660) 7 40 3.9G LTE auction 479 billion won

Source: Slowtime

In July 2006, the South Korean government canceled LG Telecom's license for 2.1 GHz W-CDMA bandwidth after the company opted not to develop the technology. LG Telecom will instead continue investing and upgrading in its CDMA2000 EV-DO Rev. A network.

In July 2011, LG U+ launched its LTE network, nationwide coverage is expected to be complete by March 2012.

On July 17, 2013 LG Uplus launched LTE-A service with the introduction of the Galaxy S4 LTE-A, the world’s first "100% LTE" smartphone that can utilize data, voice and text with LTE and not fall back to CDMA. Starting from 2014 LG Uplus plans to release only "100% LTE" phones.[7]

Landline

In 2010 LG Telecom acquired Dacom Corp., a network services firm that operated Hanaro Telecom's fixed line networks. The new affiliate helped LG enter the landline communications market.

Broadband

Launched in September 2005, U+Home is an optic LAN service that provides fast speeds of up to 100Mbit/s.

IPTV

U+TV was launched in December 2007, providing various two-way services, terrestrial and HD broadcasting.

Business-to-business sales

After merging LG DACOM in 2010, It was succeeded to LG Uplus one of the largest B2B service area. It is account for about 20% of gross sales by the role of cash-cow. It has not only traditional cable industry, also non-traditional one like electronic payment and so on.

See also

References

  1. Koichi Kato (April 10, 2014). "Top four chaebol generate 90% of South Korean conglomerate profits". Nikkei Asian Review.
  2. "About LG U+". LG U+.
  3. "CDMA History". CDG.
  4. Cho, Kevin (October 15, 2009). "LG Telecom to Merge With Dacom, Powercom on Jan. 1 (Update1)". Bloomberg L.P.
  5. Clark, Robert (October 12, 2009). "LG to merge Korean telecom operations". Telecom Asia.
  6. "이동통신 주파수 할당 현황과 경매 주파수". slowtime. Retrieved 30 October 2012.
  7. "LG Uplus, the first in the world to commercialize the '100% LTE' system". July 18, 2013. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
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