Company to test ultrafast 5G during the winter games, fueling competition among rivals

Korea’s leading mobile carrier SK Telecom said Sunday it would expand global partnerships by showcasing new services and products at the upcoming Mobile World Congress trade show to be held in Barcelona next week.The Korean mobile carrier was in the spotlight at the annual mobile trade fair last year with its information technology products, such as its smart handheld projector, an educational robot and a smartphone case equipped with a film solar panel -- mostly developed in collaboration with

Network operator LG Uplus said Sunday that it had started an Internet service that offers connection speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second over cable in Seoul.The 1 Gbps speed is 10 times faster than existing 100-megabits-per-second Internet services and enables users to download a 1.2-gigabyte movie in 10 seconds. The fast Internet service offers Wi-Fi services with speeds of up to 867Mbps as well. LG Uplus said Sunday it had started offering an Internet service that offers speeds of 1 gigabit p

Speculation has been growing about Samsung Electronics vice chairman and Samsung Group heir apparent Lee Jae-yong’s recently acquired cash totaling 300 billion won ($250 million).  In December, he secured the money by selling a 2.05 percent stake in Samsung SDS to participate in Samsung Engineering’s planned capital increase. Despite his plan to buy shares when there was a lack of applications, investors purchased most of the shares, worth 1.2 trillion won, that were issued last week. Now indust

LG TO UNVEIL NEW WIRELESS HEADSET -- LG Electronics said Sunday that it would showcase an upgraded model of neckband Bluetooth headset Tone+, which offers top-notch sound quality through technology developed by audio system developer Harman Kardon, during the Mobile World Congress trade show to be held in Barcelona from Feb. 22 to 25.(LGE)

SAMSUNG SINEAGE RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE -- Tech giant Samsung Electronics has won the AV Display Innovation of the Year award for its outdoor display, dubbed the OHD Series SMART Signage, at the Integrated Systems Europe 2016, an annual trade fair for audio and video systems held in Amsterdam last week. (Samsung Electronics)

Korea’s leading mobile network operator SK Telecom said Thursday that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Swedish network equipment firm Ericsson to build infrastructure to test fifth-generation networks.Participating in the memorandum signing ceremony in Stockholm on Tuesday, Park Jin-hyo, the head of SKT’s network technology research and development center, and Per Navinger of Ericsson pledged to work together on building the infrastructure and testing core 5G network technology c

Telecommunications firm KT said Thursday that it would participate in the Mobile World Congress, the world’s largest mobile trade show to be held in Barcelona later this month, along with promising Korean start-ups.The mobile carrier said a total of seven start-ups, including smart factory solutions developer Ulalalab and digital authentication solutions firm 12CM will showcase their products and services at the mobile carrier’s booth during the trade show. KT staffers hold products developed by

GIFTS FOR ADOPTEES -- LG Uplus’ employees participate in a corporate social responsibility program in which they make dolls for babies who have been put up for adoption, at the company’s head office in Seoul on Thursday.　(LG Uplus)

SMART COVER FOR LG G5 -- LG Electronics unveils a touch-enabled case, dubbed the Quick Cover, for its upcoming flagship smartphone G5 in Seoul on Thursday. The semitransparent smartphone cover allows users to take calls and control alarm functions by touching the front of the cover.　(LGE)

Struggling to find growth momentum in the mobile gaming segment, NCSoft saw its net income drop 27 percent in 2015, compared to a year earlier, according to the company’s regulatory filing Thursday.The company posted 166.4 billion won ($139.3 million) in net income while its operating profit stood at 237.5 billion won, down 15 percent compared to a year prior. Kim Taek-jin, CEO of NCSoft (Yonhap)The company earned 838.3 billion won in revenue, slightly down from 838.7 billion won in 2014.The com

Samsung Electronics, the nation’s largest tech giant, is expected to reduce facility investment in its chip business in 2016 from a year ago, data showed Wednesday, just as rivals such as Intel do the opposite. 　According to the data compiled by industry tracker TrendForce, Samsung Electronics is estimated to spend $11.5 billion on capital expenditure, such as spending on facilities. The figure is a 15 percent drop from $13.5 billion in 2015.　Samsung is the market leader in the global dynamic ra

Caught between decreasing earnings and challenges posed by Chinese competitors, Korea’s tech giants Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics aim to create new growth momentum with their upcoming flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S7 and G5, respectively.As announced by both firms in January, they will be unveiling their marquee handsets, on Feb. 21, a day before the beginning of the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona from Feb. 22 to 25. Shin Jong-kyun, the head of Samsung Electronics’ IT

Concerns over Kakao’s profitability are on the rise in the market as the profits of the mobile messenger operator nosedived in the October-December period last year. The company said in a regulatory filing on Friday that its net income over the three-month period plunged more than 80 percent year-on-year to 10.2 billion won ($8.5 million) while the firm’s operating income in the same period stood at 20.4 billion won, down 68.8 percent from a year earlier. The quarterly revenue came in at 241.7 b

AI CHALLENGES HUMAN GO MASTER -- Google unveiled the schedule of the Go match between its artificial intelligence program AlphaGo and Korean Go champion Lee Se-dol on Friday. Demis Hassabis, the founder of Deep Mind, developer of the AI program and a subsidiary of Google, tweeted on the same day that a total of five games will be held from March 9 to 15 in Korea. More details of the match will be revealed soon. (Kim Young-won/The Korea Herald)