South Korea will hold an auction for frequencies that will be used for the fifth-generation network on June 15, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced Thursday. The ministry will receive bids from mobile carriers starting Friday through June 4, and hold the auction on the decided day. Through a public hearing on prices of 5G frequencies held last month, the ministry set the opening price for the auction of high-end frequencies -- 28 blocks (280 megahertz) in the 3.5-gigahertz spectrum and 24

LG Electronics is focusing on a low price strategy for the company’s latest flagship G7 ThinQ model, while promising better quality, according to its mobile chief at a press conference in Seoul on Thursday. “Our major focus is to provide better quality phones at lower prices,” said Hwang Jeong-hwan, vice president and head of the mobile communications business, after unveiling the G7 ThinQ. The new smartphone features artificial intelligence functions aimed at convenience, the “brightest” displa

LG Electronics unveiled its seventh edition of G series smartphone, dubbed G7 ThinQ, to its global consumers in New York on Wednesday, highlighting on its features designed around improved user convenience. Equipped with a 6.1-inch Super Bright Display -- with a notch design in the 1,000-nit bright liquid crystal display -- the G7 ThinQ is nearly half an inch larger than its predecessor, but is small enough to be used with one hand, an element that LG has been seeking for. Among the various new

Samsung Electronics heir apparent and Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong departed for Shenzhen on Wednesday with the presidents of the tech titan’s semiconductor division. According to the industry, the heir left for the Chinese version of Silicon Valley with the company’s chipmaking unit head Kim Ki-nam, memory business head Jin Gyo-young and system LSI business head Kang In-yup. Samsung Display CEO Lee Dong-hoon also joined the business trip.“The vice chairman and presidents are scheduled to hold meet

US private equity firm Elliott confirmed Wednesday it was taking legal action against the former South Korean administration over its illegal intervention in the merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries in 2015. “Elliott is seeking to negotiate with the Republic of Korea regarding compensation for Elliott’s damages arising from the former administration’s unlawful intervention in the merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries,” said a statement released by the US fund. Elliott mentioned i

South Korean mobile carrier KT said Tuesday the company will develop chipsets for faster local area network internet with global chipset maker Aquantia based in the United States.The two signed a memorandum of understanding for the development, KT said.(Yonhap)With current technologies by KT, the LAN internet’s speed reaches up to 1 Gigabits per second by using two pairs of LAN cables. Adding a new chipset to this, the maximum speed can go up to 2.5 Gbps, and even to 5 Gbps by using four pairs o

Cinemex officials promote the Onyx screen by Samsung Electronics at a theater in Mexico City. (Samsung Electronics)South Korean tech titan Samsung Electronics will make inroads into the cinema market in Latin America by providing its light-emitting diode screens to the region’s biggest movie theaters, according to the company Tuesday. Samsung said it had signed a contract with Cinemex, the second-largest movie theater company in Mexico, to supply Samsung’s LED screen Onyx to five Cinemex venues

The world’s two-largest memory makers based in South Korea, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, are facing a legal battle against US consumers who claim that they conspired to set high prices for widely used memory chips, according to the industry on Monday. US class-action law firm Hagens Berman said in a press release Friday that it had filed a lawsuit against the three-largest electronics chipmakers, Samsung Electronics, Micron and SK hynix, claiming that the companies illegally agreed to raise

KT said Monday it is launching a donation campaign using its artificial intelligence platform GiGA Genie with the aim to make donating easier. It is the first case in South Korea to utilize AI for donations, according to the firm. The campaign, in coordination with ChildFund Korea, runs from Friday through May 30, giving GiGA Genie users the chance to donate for children in need using the speaker as part of efforts to celebrate Children’s Day, which falls on Saturday.  KT will launch a donation

According to teasers by LG Electronics, its new flagship smartphone G7 ThinQ -- set to debut on Wednesday -- will feature the brightest liquid crystal display and the loudest speaker among existing smartphones, which would turn users’ attention from dual camera back to the visual and audio features. One of the most interesting features is the so-called “New Second Screen” that has had LG officially acknowledge that the seventh edition of G series phone will join Apple’s leadership in the notch d

The third summit between South and North Korea held on Friday at Panmunjeom marked a major technological difference from the previous talks in 2000 and 2007. South Korea’s mobile carriers KT and SK Telecom actively supported the historical event with cutting-edge fifth-generation telecommunications technologies to promote their upcoming mobile services to international viewers.  The head mounted device installed by KT at 5G exhibition booth at Kintex. (Sohn Ji-young/The Korea Herald)Among others

LG Electronics and its holding company LG Corp. announced Thursday they had acquired a 100 percent stake in Austrian automotive light maker ZKW Group for some 1.44 trillion won ($1.33 billion), spurring its vehicle component business as a new growth engine. According to the announcement, LG Electronics bought a 70 percent stake in ZKW Group for 1.108 trillion won, while LG Corp. purchased 30 percent of the Austrian firm’s shares at 433.2 billion won.The acquisition plan was confirmed at a board

After achieving a record-high first-quarter operating profit, South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics faces a tough second quarter, as its display and mobile businesses are forecast to experience unfavorable market conditions, according to a conference call held Thursday after its earnings announcement. While the memory business is expected to stay robust in the following quarter, Samsung’s mobile device business is projected to see declines in sales of premium flagship models due to slowing

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics said Thursday it achieved record-high operating profit for the first quarter of 2018 due to robust sales of memory chips and smartphones. According to the earnings announcement, Samsung posted 60.56 trillion won ($56.98 billion) in consolidated revenue and 15.64 trillion won in operating profit for the first three months of the year. Its first-quarter revenue grew nearly 20 percent year-on-year, while operating profit for the quarter was a record high.

Samsung Electronics said Wednesday it had begun mass producing DRAM chips for automobiles, which can endure heat of up to 125 degrees Celsius.The chips are 10-nanometer-class 16-gigabit DRAM capable of enduring hot temperatures during automotive applications. The latest 16Gb DRAM is the industry’s first automotive solution, raising the temperature threshold from the current 105 degrees Celsius to 125 degrees Celsius, making them automotive grade 1-compliant.  16Gb DRAM (Samsung Electronics)The r

South Korea’s leading display panel maker LG Display has fallen into the red for the first time in six years due to a fall in prices of liquid crystal display panels, according to its first-quarter earnings announced Wednesday. The company said it posted 5.68 trillion won ($5.26 billion) in sales for the first three months of the year, while recording an operating loss of 98.3 billion won.The last time LG Display recorded a loss was the first quarter in 2012. “More rapid falls in LCD panel price

Samsung Electronics said Tuesday it is launching the third generation of its consumer solid-state drive lineup Samsung 970 PRO and EVO for the global market, which will set new standards for nonvolatile memory express SSD products. NVMe refers to an interface enabling high-speed data processing. Samsung first introduced NVMe products in 2015. The Samsung 970 PRO and EVO are designed to provide large-volume storage with the fastest computing power so far by adopting Samsung’s latest 64-layer V-NA

SK Telecom will provide an asset management service by using blockchain technologies within this year, and build a platform that will help match blockchain startups with investors for growth of the techs and related industry, the mobile carrier’s blockchain unit head said Tuesday. Oh Se-hyeon, executive vice president of SKT’s blockchain business unit, said the company is planning to launch a blockchain-based asset management and payment service, which will ensure trust for peer-to-peer transact

South Korea’s mobile carriers on Monday are preparing their cutting-edge network infrastructure to make the historic third summit between South and North Korea via the fifth-generation network as immersive as possible to viewers around the world. KT has been installing broadcasting and telecommunicating network systems at Panmunjeom. The company said Monday it signed an agreement with Cheong Wa Dae’s preparatory committee for the summit to provide technological support for the inter-Korean talks

South Korean mobile carriers are feeling the pinch as they are facing rising costs due to the establishment of the fifth-generation mobile network infrastructure while being pressured to cut mobile service fees, industry insiders said Sunday. Amid the increasing pressures on the country’s three telecom companies to cut households’ mobile costs, the upcoming auction for 5G frequencies in mid-June is predicted to charge the operators huge costs, making it harder for them to seek margins. On Thursd