LG Uplus forges ahead for faster LTE-A services

LG Uplus, the third-largest mobile carrier in Korea, announced that it would start offering new services based on the broadband Long Term Evolution advanced networks on Monday.

The new services, which will be available from July, include Netflix-like movie streaming service Uflix Movie, high definition TV streaming service U+HDTV New, and U+Navi Real, a navigation system featuring live video of traffic conditions.

The firm said those services would herald the beginning of the era of “video LTE.”

“LG Uplus will try to enable our customers to live a new mobile life with the broadband LTE-A services,” said Choi Joo-sik, chief of the firm’s service creation division, at a press conference on the day.

Pledging that the company would lead the era of the broadband LTE-A down the road, Choi said the mobile network operator would start carrying Galaxy S5 Broadband LTE-A from this Thursday.

Other services unveiled at the event include U+tvG, which enables subscribers to broadcast in real time though the broadband LTE network, and U+Share Live, which allows users to share video content with up to 100 subscribers through LG Uplus’ cloud systems.

An LG Uplus official said customers would be able to use unlimited data and access the services based on the broadband LTE-A by subscribing to a new mobile phone plan, which costs 89,900 won ($88) per month.

The broadband LTE-A combines two bandwidths in different frequency bands to provide network speeds of up to 225 Mbps, three times faster than the current LTE network.

The company plans to commercialize the three-band LTE-A technology, which offers download speeds of up to 300 Mbps, this year.

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