South Korean network carrier SK Telecom on Thursday shared its long-term plan and ongoing efforts to push forward the development of Internet of Things technologies that make use of its newly deployed LoRaWAN network.

The LoRAWAN network, which stands for “long-range wide-area network,” is designed to transmit small amounts of data at very low speeds of below 5 kilobits per second from battery-equipped objects to base stations across long distances.

It stands as a cost-effective, power-efficient network that can bring to the market new IoT-based technologies and services such as off-sight monitoring of street lights, manholes, water reservoirs as well as wearables to track down cattle or pets.

SKT began offering the LoRaWAN network across Korea in June, in conjunction with its faster, more advanced LTE-M network which utilizes existing Long-Term Evolution wireless broadband technology to service IoT devices that require faster data transmission speeds.

“We’re preparing to become a data platform player in Korea’s emerging IoT ecosystem,” said Cha In-hyok, executive vice president of SKT’s IoT Solution Business Office, at a press conference on Thursday during the annual global LoRa Alliance meeting taking place in Seoul this year.

SKT is currently working with around 540 client companies to bring their IoT-based technologies to life -- whether it is monitoring heat pumps, detecting toxic gas, monitoring energy meters or gauging water levels at farms via IoT technology, Cha said. And this number is slated to grow in the years ahead.

“We feel a great sense of obligation as the first carrier in Korea to deploy the LoRaWAN network. With 500 partners already at hand, the success of LoRaWAN affects not only us, but also a lot of companies in (Korea’s emerging) IoT ecosystem,” he added.

LoRaWAN is one of the fastest-growing IoT network formats in the world, deployed in some 150 major cities across the world today, according to the LoRaWAN Alliance founded last year with the aim of standardizing LoRaWAN networks around the world.

SKT is the only Korean member of the LoRaWAN Alliance as well as the only company in Asia to deploy a large-scale, nationwide LoRaWAN network.

“SK Telecom has both advantages as well as disadvantages as the first LoRaWAN network operator (in Korea and Asia), said Jaap Goot, a LoRa Alliance board member, noting that SKT will inevitably face challenges as a first mover in a new technology segment.

“Though there may be language barriers, we believe SKT can contribute to the expansion of the LoRaWAN network beyond Korea to the broader Asian region in the future,” Goot said.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)