South Korean cellular carrier
LG Uplus Corp. Current logo as of 2016 |
Native name | Korean: LG유플러스 |
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| Company type | Public |
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| KRX: 032640 |
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| Industry | Telecommunications |
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| Predecessor | LG Telecom |
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| Founded | July 11, 1996; 27 years ago (1996-07-11) |
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| Headquarters | , South Korea |
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Area served | South Korea |
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Key people | Hwang Hyeon Sik (CEO) |
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| Products | |
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| Revenue | KRW 13.42 trillion (2020) |
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| KRW 886.2 billion (2020) |
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| Owner | LG Corporation (37%) |
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Number of employees | 10,221 (as of June, 2021) |
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| Divisions | Studio X+U |
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| Subsidiaries | AIN Teleservice
CS Leader |
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| Website | lguplus.com |
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LG Uplus Corp. (Korean: LG유플러스; stylized as LG U+, KRX: 032640) is a South Korean mobile network operator owned by LG Corporation. It was formerly known as LG Telecom, but changed to its current name on July 1, 2010.[1][2] LG Uplus is the third-largest wireless carrier in South Korea, with 16.652 million subscribers as of Q4 2020.[3][4]
The carrier adopted its current name after the July 2010 merger with another two LG telecommunication subsidiaries, Dacom and Powercom.
LG U+ offers a variety of mobile services. GeForce Now distributes by U+ 5G in South Korea, and MusicON was discontinued music service for Feature Phones. Kakaonavi recently partnered with LG U+[when?].
History
After a decision of the state-owned Korea Telecom to sell its cellular business to private investors in 1994, the South Korean government opened the telecommunications sector up to competition. Korea Telecom would later relaunch its cellular business with KT Freetel in 1996. LG entered the wireless communications market in 1996 by acquiring a CDMA license in June and founded a new carrier named LG Telecom, which built a nationwide digital cellular network. In October 1997, PCS cellular service was launched.[5]
In March 1998, in an effort to make itself stand out from the bigger, more established players in the market, LG Telecom launched the world's first commercial cdmaOne data service using PCS technology.[6]
To better position itself to compete in the bundled services market, LG Telecom acquired LG Dacom, a fixed-line communications networks and Internet-related service provider and LG Powercom, one of Korea's largest ISPs.[7][8] On July 1, 2010, LG Telecom switched to its current name, "LG U+."
In 2022, the company achieved an annual operating profit of 1 trillion won for the first time, but in 2023, due to an increase in capital expenditure (CAPEX) reached 998 billion won ($751.8 million), a decrease of 7.7% from 2022. Meanwhile, revenue rose 3.4% to 14.37 trillion won and service revenue excluding handset sales rose to 11.64 trillion won (up 2% from 2022). The total number of wireless subscribers or mobile network operator (MNO) and mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) subscribers was about 25.1 million (up 26.1%), and the number of 5G subscribers reached 7.04 million (up 16.2%), exceeding half of the total number of LG Uplus subscribers.[9]
Services
Wireless
As of 2012 LG Uplus customers can receive the services on any of radio frequency band assigned, one or more of radio interfaces.[10]
| Radio frequency range |
Frequency band |
Frequency
width
(MHz) |
Generation |
Radio Interface |
License |
Notes
|
| 850 MHz (839–849, 884–894) |
5 |
2x10 |
3.9G/4G |
LTE/LTE-A |
|
|
| 1800 MHz (1770–1780, 1860–1870) |
BC4 |
2x10 |
3G |
CDMA/EVDO Rev-A/Rev-B |
until June 2021 |
|
| 2100 MHz (1920–1930, 2110–2120) |
1 |
2x10 |
3.9G/4G |
LTE/LTE-A |
auction 44.55billion won |
|
| 2600 MHz (2520–2540, 2640–2660) |
7 |
2x20 |
3.9G/4G |
LTE/LTE-A |
auction 479 billion won |
|
| 3500 MHz (3400–3500) |
n78 |
80 |
5G |
NR |
|
|
| 28 GHz (27.3-28.1) |
n257 |
800 |
5G |
NR |
|
License revoked.[11]
|
Source: Slowtime
In July 2006, the South Korean government canceled LG Telecom's license for 2.1 GHz W-CDMA bandwidth after the company opted not to develop the technology. LG Telecom will instead continue investing and upgrading in its CDMA2000 EV-DO Rev. A network.
In July 2011, LG U+ launched its LTE network, nationwide coverage is expected to be complete by March 2012.
On July 17, 2013, LG Uplus launched LTE-A service with the introduction of the Galaxy S4 LTE-A, the world's first "100% LTE" smartphone that can utilize data, voice and text with LTE and not fall back to CDMA. Starting from 2014 LG Uplus plans to release only "100% LTE" phones.[12]
Landline
In 2010 LG Telecom acquired Dacom Corp., a network services firm that operated Hanaro Telecom's fixed line networks. The new affiliate helped LG enter the landline communications market.
Broadband
Launched in September 2005, U+Home is an optic LAN service that provides fast speeds of up to 100Mbit/s.
IPTV
U+TV was launched in December 2007, providing various two-way services, terrestrial and HD broadcasting.
Business-to-business sales
After merging LG DACOM in 2010, It was succeeded to LG Uplus one of the largest B2B service area. It is account for about 20% of gross sales by the role of cash-cow. It has not only traditional cable industry, also non-traditional one like electronic payment and so on.
U+ Mobile TV
LG Uplus' 'U+ Mobile TV' has been broadcasting 10 channels of CJ ENM's affiliates in real time. However, the two companies failed to narrow the gap over the fee for using the U+ mobile TV service. After all, on June 11, 2021, CJ ENM's affiliated channels stopped transmission on U+ Mobile TV.[13]
In October 2022, LG Uplus launched the Studio X+U division as the original content provider for U+ Mobile TV.[14]
Controversies
In January and February 2023, LG U+ was hit by a series of DDoS attacks that interrupted data services and resulted in personal information leakage. On February 16, 2023, LG U+ CEO Hwang Hyeon-sik apologized for the company's insufficient cybersecurity infrastructure and stated that their cybersecurity spending would increase by 100 billion won ($77.9 million) per year.[15]
