SK Telecom wants to establish a global roaming network for Internet of Things (IoT) services in cooperation with overseas telecom operators.
The nation’s top mobile carrier said Thursday the global IoT roaming network will enable services such as luggage tracking.
“We will actively share our knowhow obtained while establishing and commercializing the LoRa network nationwide with partners at home and abroad, contributing to a global IoT ecosystem,”
said Park Jin-hyo, SK Telecom’s network R&D center senior vice president.
SK Telecom said it participated in a meeting in Nice, France, this week to discuss partnerships for establishing an international roaming system for the LoRa network connecting Korea and Europe.
The network is designed to provide wide coverage, low energy consumption and long battery life for IoT modules for small devices. The network was developed by the LoRa Alliance, a group of global mobile carriers and network equipment makers that includes Cisco and IBM.
On July 4, SK Telecom said it has established the LoRa network in Korea and plans to connect 4 million IoT devices to it by next year.
SK Telecom said it suggested its partners ― including Spanish telecom company Telefonica and France’s leading system integration providers EGM and CEA ― jointly develop a LoRa-based roaming system. The French companies, which are testing their LoRa networks in the European market, welcomed the suggestion and agreed to discuss standardization of roaming systems, SK Telecom said.
The Korean telecom company also said it will meet officials from the LoRa Alliance in Berlin next week to discuss the matter.
SK Telecom said the IoT roaming system plan is a part of the Korean government’s national policy research projects. In June, the telecom company joined a consortium of Sejong University and EGM to cooperate in the IoT sector.
Source: The Korea Times
