LG Uplus

LG Uplus Corp. (Korean: LG유플러스; stylized as LG U+, KRX: 032640) is a South Korean mobile network operator owned by LG Corporation. It was formerly known as LG Telecom, but changed to its current name on July 1, 2010.[1][2] LG Uplus is the third-largest wireless carrier in South Korea, with 16.652 million subscribers as of Q4 2020.[3][4]

Not to be confused with U Mobile, Plus (telecommunications Poland), or E-Plus.
LG Uplus Corp.
Native name
Korean: LG유플러스
TypePublic
KRX: 032640
IndustryTelecommunications
PredecessorLG Telecom
FoundedJuly 11, 1996 (1996-07-11)
Headquarters
Yongsan-gu, Seoul
,
South Korea
Area served
South Korea
Key people
Hwang Hyeon Sik (CEO)
ProductsMobile telephony,
Wireless broadband services
RevenueKRW 13.42 trillion (2020)
KRW 886.2 billion (2020)
Number of employees
10,221 (as of June, 2021)
ParentLG Corporation
SubsidiariesAIN Teleservice
CS Leader
Websitelguplus.com

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. GeForce Now distributes by U+ 5G in South Korea, and MusicON was discontinued music service for Feature Phones. Kakaonavi recently partnered with LG U+.

History

After a decision of the state-owned Korea Telecom to sell its cellular business to private investors in 1994, the South Korean government opened the telecommunications sector up to competition. Korea Telecom would later relaunch its cellular business with KT Freetel in 1996. 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.[5]

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.[6]

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.[7][8] 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.[9]

Radio frequency rangeFrequency bandFrequency
width
(MHz)		GenerationRadio InterfaceLicenseNotes
850 MHz (839–849, 884–894)52x103.9G/4GLTE/LTE-A
1800 MHz (1770–1780, 1860–1870)BC42x103GCDMA/EVDO Rev-A/Rev-Buntil June 2021
2100 MHz (1920–1930, 2110–2120)12x103.9G/4GLTE/LTE-Aauction 44.55billion won
2600 MHz (2520–2540, 2640–2660)72x203.9G/4GLTE/LTE-Aauction 479 billion won
3500 MHz (3400–3500)n78805GNR
28 GHz (27.3-28.1)n2578005GNRLicense revoked.[10]

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.[11]

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.

U+ Mobile TV

LG Uplus' 'U+ Mobile TV' has been broadcasting 10 channels of CJ ENM's affiliates in real time. However, the two companies failed to narrow the gap over the fee for using the U+ mobile TV service. After all, LG Uplus decided to stop this service in June 11, 2021.[12]

Controversies

In January and February 2023, LG U+ was hit by a series of DDoS attacks that interrupted data services and resulted in personal information leakage. On February 16, 2023, LG U+ CEO Hwang Hyeon-sik apologized for the company's insufficient cybersecurity infrastructure and stated that their cybersecurity spending would increase by 100 billion won ($77.9 million) per year.[13]

See also

References
  1. "LG텔레콤, ''LG 유플러스''로 사명 변경" (in Korean). 2010-05-13. Archived from the original on 2020-09-18. Retrieved 2022-03-23.
  2. LG유플러스 (2010-06-29). "통합LG텔레콤, 임시주총 열어 'LG유플러스'로 상호 변경 승인" (in Korean). Archived from the original on 2022-03-23. Retrieved 2022-03-23.
  3. "Korea Communication Market Data". Netmanias. 30 May 2018. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  4. "South Korea: Mobile phone carrier market share 2020".
  5. "About LG U+". LG U+. Archived from the original on 2018-09-09. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
  6. "CDMA History". CDG.
  7. Cho, Kevin (October 15, 2009). "LG Telecom to Merge With Dacom, Powercom on Jan. 1 (Update1)". Bloomberg L.P.
  8. Clark, Robert (October 12, 2009). "LG to merge Korean telecom operations". Telecom Asia.
  9. "이동통신 주파수 할당 현황과 경매 주파수". slowtime. Retrieved 30 October 2012.
  10. "South Korea cancels 5G 28GHz spectrum allocation to telcos due to 'lack of spending'". ZD Net. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  11. "LG Uplus, the first in the world to commercialize the '100% LTE' system". July 18, 2013. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
  12. Park, Sae-jeong (2021-06-12). "LGU+, CJ ENM channel eventually stops transmission". 헤럴드경제 (in Korean). Retrieved 2021-06-12.
  13. "LG Uplus apologizes for personal information leak, service failure". koreatimes. The Korea Times. 16 February 2023. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  • Official website
  • LG Uplus page on TeleGeography
  • Business data for LG Uplus:
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