Telcos beef up videoconferencing services amid pandemic

South Korean telecom companies are ramping up moves to improve their videoconference services to meet rising demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has spurred a telework trend here, industry insiders said Monday.

Global videoconference and work collaboration software, such as Zoom and Microsoft Corp.'s Teams, have recently surged in popularity on the back of pandemic-driven demand. Zoom reported it had 300 million global daily meeting users in April, compared with 10 million in December last year.

Leading mobile carrier SK Telecom Co. said it released the group video conference service "MeetUs," which can host up to 100 people on a single conference and uses the 5G network to provide quad high-definition video.

The carrier is targeting its 29 million mobile subscriber base as they will be able to log in to the service using their online accounts.

The move comes as local companies and schools have incorporated videoconference services as infection preventative measures. The country continues to report dozens of new daily infections despite strict social distancing and strengthened quarantine measures.

SK Telecom's local rivals have rushed to prepare similar services.

Telecom operator LG Uplus Corp. released a cloud-based videoconference service in June, which allows up to 1,000 users to join in a single conference. The service offers work collaboration features, such as note taking and file sharing.

Another telecom giant, KT Corp., is currently testing its videoconference service with a planned launch later this year.

Telecom operators face competition from other local players, such as tech giant Naver Corp., which operates the work collaboration application Line Works that supports videoconferences.

The global collaboration software market is expected to reach $13.6 billion in 2023, compared with a value of $11 billion in 2018, according to a report from Samjong KPMG Economic Research Institute. (Yonhap)