South Korea's SK Telecom has revealed plans to roll out a nationwide low-power wide area (LPWA) network as part of its IoT strategy.
The operator will invest 100 billion won ($83.8 million) by 2017 to boost its IoT business, including deploying LPWA nationwide within this year.
SK Telecom's IoT plans also include developing dedicated IoT modules - complete with open APIs for third-party developers - and upgrading its IoT platform ThingPlug.
SK Telecom’s plans are in line with the government's push to promote the establishment of new industries based on the IoT, which includes increasing the maximum transmit power for the 900-MHz band from 10mW to 200mW.
As well as the nationwide LPWA deployment, SK Telecom will establish an IoT control center to manage network equipment and IoT devices, and to operate IoT security diagnostics processes.
“Through our IoT strategy that encompasses network, platform and devices, SK Telecom will lead the growth of the IoT industry,” SK Telecom president and COO Lee Hyung-hee said.
“Our forward-looking efforts will also contribute to the creation of an enriched IoT ecosystem where developers and startups/SMEs can easily build diverse IoT services that can bring new and differentiated value for customers.”