LG Uplus vows to lead 5G, IoT at new Yongsan office

LG Uplus’ new headquarters building in Yongsan, central Seoul.

LG Uplus said Sunday it will shore up efforts to develop fifth-generation network and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies at its new headquarters in Yongsan.

“LG Uplus has changed from the past when it was busy keeping up with other carriers and has started to achieve notable results with strengthened organizational competency,” the telecom company said in a statement.

“We pushed ahead with the long-term evolution (LTE) business and ignited customer awareness at the previous headquarters in Namsan. We pledge to bring another unprecedented telecom revolution as a leader in IoT technology at our new headquarters in Yongsan, where many IT industries had been developed.”

The new headquarters building of LG Uplus has over 55,000 square meters in total space with seven underground and 21 above ground floors. Employee welfare facilities such as a fitness center, childcare center and a library will be installed on third floor.

The company said it will open the library park around the building for Yongsan residents.

LG Uplus said the new headquarters have state-of-the-art facilities.

The building has what are called “double deck” elevators, which operate two elevators in one shaft to half waiting time. The elevators are controlled by a smart gateway system which reads the floor information stored in a passenger’s identification card and automatically stops the elevators on the right floor.

The building will also have an eco-friendly energy saving system that makes walls and windows automatically adjusted to absorb or block sunlight by different seasons and temperature.

LG Uplus launched a nationwide LTE network in March 2012 and commercialized voice-over-LTE technology in August of the same year. In January 2014, the company succeeded in demonstrating the tri-band carrier aggregation technology.

The telecom company has achieved gradual growth in the average revenue per user (ARPU), which is the key index that determines the success of a mobile business, in recent years on the back of sharp increase in the LTE service subscribers.

The company said its mobile service ARPU in 2013 was 34,106 won, up 13.5 percent from a year ago. In 2014, the company recorded 36,157 won, which is the highest in the local telecom industry.

Consequently, LG Uplus posted 5.21 trillion won in mobile business sales last year, up 9.3 percent from 4.77 trillion won in 2013.

The number of its LTE subscribers reached 8.46 million at the end of last year. This was almost 75 percent of its total mobile subscribers, the company said.

Based on the successful launch of LTE business, LG Uplus has rolled out diverse high-quality video content services such as U+HDTV, Uwa, U+Box, U+NaviLTE and U+ShareLive. It also released the nation’s first unlimited voice call plan and a Korean-version Netflix services named “Uflix.”

LG Uplus has also launched IoT-related services.

Its Home Boy, Gas Rock and Home CCTV “Momca” service are a part of its smart home system solutions that integrate telecom, security, live and electronics to enhance the quality of live through the IoT technology, the company said.