SK Telecom connects Expo with fast wireless networks

YEOSU ― Entering Yeosu Expo from the bullet train station mainly built for this gala, visitors will face a cluster of spotless and architecturally unique corporate pavilions.

One exhibition center, situated at the end of the Northeast edge overlooking the sea, stands out: a three-story pavilion covered with what looks like a giant fishing net, colored in white and shaped like a cloud.

This belongs to SK Telecom, Korea’s biggest mobile carrier and the only telecom company to exhibit here.

The net symbolizes cloud computing, the emerging technology that will change the way consumers and enterprises process and use mobile data and content, a SK Telecom spokesperson explained.

Unlike other corporate pavilions such as POSCO and Hyundai Motor, whose features only extend to their architectural designs and media content, SK Telecom’s so-called “We-Cloud” pavilion shows how smartphones and gadgets will be integrated with the everyday “green” lives of consumers in healthcare, education, automobiles and shopping.

From the first floor to the third, people can walk through, checking their blood pressure and riding a sports car simulation connected with the latest information and communication technology. The tour ends with music video content featuring “Beautiful Mountain and Stream” in a surround screen, true to the expo’s “Living Ocean and Coast” theme.

SK Telecom invested 20 billion won ($17 million), including human capital and operations, for the establishment of We-Cloud.

It has also put in an additional 6.1 billion won to provide long-term evolution services as well as smartphones and tablet PCs to 1,000 expo managers and organizers to ensure “fast connectivity,” whereas KT holds the title as the expo’s main telecommunication services provider, while LG Uplus is nowhere to be seen here.

“Our main priority is to make this event the world’s ‘highest standard ICT’ expo,” Baik Jung-gi, senior vice president of SK Telecom, told a group of reporters during his presentation.

Baik, the “field commander” in developing the expo’s LTE networks, added that SK Telecom is the only telecom operator with a mobile station and three control centers standing by to monitor its LTE and WiFi zones and maintain smooth, uninterrupted wireless traffic for an expected 150,000 visitors a day.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)