SK Telecom hopes Samsung will join smart home initiative

South Korea’s top mobile carrier SK Telecom said Wednesday it wished to work with more global tech giants, such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, to grow smart home businesses down the road.

“SKT would like to have Samsung and LG as partners for the company’s Smart Home, an open platform for home devices,” said Cho Young-hoon, senior vice president of the telecom firm’s smart home task force, at a press meeting held in Seoul Wednesday.

He added the partnership with the two tech giants, if made, would give a boost to the telecom firm’s initiative for a connected home.

“The company will nurture the Smart Home platform through more collaboration with partners,” Cho said. 

SKT’s Smart Home allows consumers to manage home electronics and devices including TVs, cooling and heating systems, and gas valves through their smartphones.

Users, for example, can remotely turn on or off gas valves when they are away with a couple taps on their smartphones, or adjust humidity and temperature levels before arriving home.

Global telecom firms and electronics giants at home and abroad, including Google, Apple and Samsung, have been jumping into the sector for connected home technology, acquiring relative businesses.

Aiming to nurture the ecosystem of the fledgling domestic smart home industry, Korea’s largest mobile network operator joined hands with partners including dehumidifier-maker Winix, furniture firm Ace Bed, and door lock system company Assa Abloy.

In order to outpace its rivals in the smart home sector race, SKT will open the application programming interface for Smart Home later this year ― simply put, the smart home system will be able to connect with any device through networks.

Introduced at the press meeting were air purifiers, defumidifiers, door locks, digital gas valves, robotic vacuum cleaners and beds, which are all connected to and can be monitored and controlled on the Smart Home platform.

Kim Kum-dong, a marketing head of Winix, said SKT’s smart home platform will “enable users to control a range of home appliances in an integrated manner with ease,” pinning high hopes on the collaboration with the No. 1 mobile carrier in Korea.

As to possible hacking attempts on the smart home system and devices, SKT said the platform and devices would be protected by the top-notch security software embedded in them.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)