KT chairman assures competitive IT support for international event


KT Corp. chairman Lee Suk-chae said Thursday the company will deliver the stories of athletes taking part in the Daegu World Championships in real-time through its communications services.

“It’s now a smart era where all crowds who come to watch the games are cameramen and reporters,” he told The Korea Herald. “KT will provide the way for participants to publicize the touching stories throughout the event.”

KT has installed about 3,500 circuits around the main sports stadium for the broadcasts, fixed-line phone and internet services for the international sports competition, underway for nine days starting Saturday.

Being the country’s largest fixed-line service provider, it has built a system which enables 3,500 people to make phone calls simultaneously in the main stadium area, as well as a wireless broadband network allowing 1,000 people to connect at once, according to company officials.

The company is hard at work in its preparations to offer customized telecommunications services to 6,000 participants, including athletes from 212 nations plus press from around the world, said Lee.

It created a 14-employee support team for the World Championships in Athletics as soon as it was named the main telecommunications service operator on Feb. 8.

The firm also gathered about 100 employees in departments related to network operations to gear up for the global sports event.

“Including KT’s free support amounting to up to 2 billion won, we’re injecting a total of 6 billion won in facility investment for the construction of broadcast and telecommunications facilities,” he said.

KT also demonstrated its ability to successfully launch its IT support by providing the services for the international marathon in Daegu on April 10, he added.

“We were able to confirm through organizing the event that we could play a successful role for this competition,” said Lee.

The company, however, plans to dispatch IT support and network experts to deal with any communications inconveniences during the event.

Of KT’s experiences as the main operator of telecommunications at global events, the G20 Seoul Summit was the most difficult, said the chairman.

“Because a good number of national leaders and representatives took part in it, more actions had to be taken against possible cyber terror attacks and the communication services of bodyguards,” he said. “Only a few of the workforce were allowed inside the event halls and the preparation period was rather short. But the technology support provided throughout the event was a successful case and we even received an award for our role.”

After serving the Daegu World Championships in Athletics, KT will further expand its position to take on a new role at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics, Lee said.

“In the past, KT has performed as the main service provider at a variety of sports competitions and international events, which is why we will put efforts into giving telecommunications services of best quality at Pyeongchang as well.”

Lee, 66, led the country’s smart-era transition by introducing Apple’s iPhone in November 2009, at a time when the nation was dominated by mobile phones manufactured by local electronics giants ― Samsung and LG Electronics.

It is now working to make another leap into an information technology convergence group from a telecom service firm, with plans to have non-telecom businesses take up 45 percent of overall sales by 2015.

It is targeting 40 trillion won ($36.8 billion) in sales ― 6 trillion won in IT services and media, 8 trillion won in finance, auto and security, 4 trillion won in global projects and 22 trillion won in telecom services ― in 2015. Total sales in those four sectors amounted to 25 trillion won in 2010.

KT will also focus on cloud computing technology and media content production, Lee said. It also plans on entering foreign markets with business network solutions and network management skills as well as cloud computing technologies.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)