South Korea’s big three network operators -- SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus --on Monday completed their applications to participate in an upcoming spectrum auction, according to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning Tuesday.A total of five blocks in the 700-megahertz, 1.8-gigahertz, 2.1GHz and 2.6GHz frequencies will be up for sale during the spectrum auction, which is expected to raise at least 2.6 trillion won ($2.3 billion) in total. Executives and officials from network operator LG

SAMSUNG-U.N. PARTNERSHIP FOR CHARITY -- Kim Jung-hwan (left), manager of Samsung Electronics’ South America headquarters, poses with Amanda Mukwashi, U.N. volunteers’ knowledge and innovation team leader, after signing an agreement to run support programs together for the underprivileged in South America.　(Samsung Electronics)

LG UPLUS SUPPORTS DISABLED -- LG Uplus, Korea’s third-largest mobile carrier, said Monday it would provide its Home Internet of Things services for free to 3,000 households with physically challenged individuals. The services allow users to monitor and control home appliances through smartphones. (LG Uplus)

SAMSUNG AD RIDES POPULARITY – Samsung Electronics said Monday that its TV ad for air conditioner Q9500, featuring former figure skating champion Kim Yu-na, has hit 10 million views online in 19 days. (Samsung Electronics)

Lezhin Entertainment said Monday that it has joined hands with a local company to create dramas based on webtoons, or online comics.The operator of webtoon platform Lezhin Comics has signed a memorandum of understanding with SBS The Story Works, a drama maker, to produce TV shows based on popular online comics series. The logos of Lezhin Comics and SBS The Story Works　(Lezhin Entertainment)SBS Story Works has rolled out some hit Korean dramas including “Divorce Lawyer Is in Love” and “Ghost.”The

LG Electronics has launched an online retail store for its smart device line Friends, opening the platform to start-ups and developers to nurture an ecosystem for connected devices. The new website, dubbed LG Friends, is an online market where consumers can buy LG’s latest smart devices, including a removable smartphone camera, a portable speaker, a rolling toy robot, and a wireless headset. Developers attend LG Electronics’ conference in San Francisco, California, last Friday. (LGE)The Friends

KOREAN TELECOM WATCHDOG BEEFS UP TIES WITH U.S. COUNTERPART -- Tom Wheeler (left), chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, and Choi Sung-joon, chairman of South Korea’s telecommunications regulator Korea Communications Commission pose at a meeting held at the FCC last week. They discussed a range of issues including mergers between telecom companies and broadcasting firms, privacy laws, net neutrality and spectrum auctions. (KCC)

SK Telecom, South Korea’s leading wireless firm, said Sunday that it has struck a deal to export its pico projector, worth 300 million yen, to Japan.The telecom firm said that it would supply its projector, UO Smart Beam Laser, to Taisei Express of Japan for one year starting from this month. Kim Sung-han(right), head of SKT’s device planning division poses with Taisei Express CEO Hwang Kyong-ho after signing a supply deal in Hong Kong on Saturday. (SKT)The two partners reached the deal at the H

Competition in the global solid-state drive market is heating up as more players are rolling out the storage system built on technology that stacks cells vertically.An SSD is lighter and more compact than a conventional hard disk drive. It also boasts shorter booting time and faster reading and writing speeds than an HDD.  Intel’s solid-state drive product (Intel)Intel recently rolled out a new SSD lineup based on 3-D NAND flash memory in Seoul, home turf of Samsung Electronics, the largest SSD

South Korea will host the Intellectual Property Business Congress, an annual forum for the global intellectual property industry, for the first time at JW Marriott Seoul Hotel in Seoul on Friday.Around 200 IP experts, patent agency officials and corporate executives will flock to the event, dubbed IPBC Korea, to discuss current issues and challenges facing the IP segment, such as how to develop strategies to boost the value of IP.Some of the speakers for the event include IBM’s Asia-Pacific IP l

Tech giant Samsung Electronics’ mobile security solution KNOX has received the highest score among security solutions for mobile operating systems in a series of tests, surpassing rivals including Apple.Samsung received the highest “strong,” rating in market research firm Gartner’s annual report released last week. It assesses 12 mobile security solutions across more than 20 categories including encryption management, authentication methods, and OS updates. A Galaxy S7 user initiates Samsung Ele

SK hynix, the world’s third-largest chipmaker by sales, is expected to see its operating profit more than halve during the first three months of this year, according to analyst reports Wednesday.Korean investment firms predicted that the Korean chip company’s first quarter operating profit would be in a range of 512 billion won ($446 million) to 579 billion won. SK hynix’s NAND Flash memory chip. (SK hynix)The estimates are up to 60 percent lower than the company’s operating profit in the first

Tech giant Samsung Electronics has been accelerating its push into the autonomous vehicle segment by trying to attract seasoned researchers in the field.The company posted a job opening for researchers in the autonomous driving vehicle sector on Samsung Group’s online job bulletin board Tuesday. Internet giant Google’s self-driving vehicle. (Yonhap)The job description showed that new researchers would handle tasks including computer vision, biosignal analysis, and optical film for display, which

Local tech giant LG Electronics has teamed up with state-run Korea Water Resources Corp., better known as K-water, to develop floating solar power plants.Floating solar power plants produce electricity from solar panels that are placed on the surface of ponds or reservoirs. The plants are said to be 10 percent more energy-efficient than land-based solar power plants. LG Electronics’ energy business center chief Lee Sang-bong(right) and K-water president Choi Gye-woon pose at a memorandum of unde

Kakao, the operator of South Korea’s most-used mobile messenger, is likely to see its profits nosedive in the first quarter despite its aggressive moves to expand mobile and offline businesses, analyst reports said Tuesday. However, the company’s issuance of convertible bonds worth 250 billion won ($219 million) will clear the uncertainty over its funding needs, they said.Kakao’s net profit in the first quarter is expected to have plunged 45.3 percent year-on-year to 22.1 billion won, and operat