LG Uplus said Sunday that it would introduce five exclusive Long Term Evolution network services this year.

The country’s third-largest mobile carrier said it would provide high-definition voice services as well as upgraded cloud services as the second part of its project to expand fourth generation network provision.

“What defines LTE service is that it will be faster and the network will enable us to enjoy various media services, as well as offering a platform for all Internet-based services,” the firm’s chief executive Lee Sang-chul said in a press conference to celebrate its first year since rolling out the LTE networks.

According to Lee, mobile carriers have chosen telecom services based on voice features until now, but now they are heading for the Internet functions.

“What has become different through the upgraded networks is that we can now combine voice, text and video services altogether, which was impossible in the past,” he said. “We can send moving pictures, maps and documents while we’re on the phone or put them up on the car monitor or other devices like on Internet-protocol televisions.”

As part of the effort, the company will release a cloud-based game sometime in July, along with real-time broadcasts with its nationwide LTE networks.

Earlier in April, the chief executive of the country’s third-largest mobile carrier also said that it will set the global standard in the LTE network category.

Company officials also said the telecom recorded the highest growth rate among the country’s three mobile carriers in the first quarter of this year. It currently has about 2.62 million LTE subscribers as of June 28.

Declaring to rebrand the company when it comes to LTE, the firm plans to continue its efforts in taking the lead in the local LTE market.

In a related bid, about 2,800 LG Uplus employees participated in a campaign designed to raise its brand awareness involving the LTE networks throughout the most populated areas in Seoul from June 25-29.

Holding the campaign in locations including Gangnam, Gwanghwamun and Seoul Station, the employees handed out pamphlets and fans written about the merits of its fourth-generation network technology to people during the rush hours.

The company has held such campaigns in October of last year in regions such as the metropolitan areas of Daejeon, Busan, Gwangju and Daegu.

Involving its offering of the free mobile call service, LG Uplus said it has offered free mobile messenger voice minutes to most of its subscribers.

With its rivals fighting fiercely with mobile messenger firm Kakao Talk over Kakao’s free voice service, LG Uplus was the only mobile carrier which announced it would offer the service to its subscribers.

LG Uplus started to offer free mobile voice minutes anywhere from 75 to 3,840 free voice minutes, or 30 megabytes to 1.5 gigabytes, from July 1.

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