Visitors experience KT’s ‘Olleh’ anytime, anywhere in Yeosu


KT is pulling out all the stops to make sure visitors to the Yeosu Expo have access to high-speed Internet anywhere they go during the three-month event.

The Korean mobile carrier, chosen as the international event’s main telecommunications service provider, has implemented the “3W plus LTE” strategy for the Expo.

This refers to providing the fastest-ever wireless services in 3G WCDMA, Wibro and WiFi as “3W,” as well as long-term evolution services.

Equipped with its know-how in telecom operations, gained through international events and conferences in Korea in recent years, KT has once again been entrusted with major responsibilities.

KT was also the main telecom services provider for the Nuclear Security Summit, the APEC and G-20 summits, plus the IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Korea.

Instead of only maintaining telecom operations at conference rooms or press centers as it has in previous global summits, KT needs to ensure everything stays wirelessly connected at the Expo, which has some 80 facilities, including pavilions and exhibitions where the main features include media content. Some 105 countries are participating in this international event.

Whether visitors stroll inside the International Pavilion, Sky Tower or walk by the Big-O at nighttime, KT said guests can easily connect to its services.

Its LTE services also extend beyond the Expo to the KTX bullet train, which brings visitors to the Expo’s entrance. Meanwhile, its 4G Wibro can be accessed not only at exhibition centers within the expo, but also in the city and the airport.

To counter the possible overflow of traffic at the expo, the telecom company has dispatched more than 30 of its IT specialists to monitor its networks 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The company is also providing education to users of its 3W plus LTE networks such as foreign visitors and reporters, it said.

It has also dispatched 14 KT workers to support Yeosu management teams, and more than 50 to operate its networks at the event.

“We will actively promote Korea’s mobile and 4G strength through our participation in the Expo,” said a KT official.

It is also featuring near-field communication-based mobile services at the expo, which allows visitors to settle their bills via smartphones and provide voice communication systems.

Besides mobile connection support, the telecom company is flexing its muscles in fixed-line communication services, developing about 260 systems for integrating Internet and transmission equipment and laying out 4,300 separate lines for Web access, telephones and broadcasting, the company said.

The Yeosu Expo is expected to create more than 79,000 jobs and generate more than 12 trillion won ($10.2 billion) in terms of productivity, twice as much as the 1988 Seoul Olympics, according to the Yeosu organizing committee.

Korea first participated in the Expo in Chicago in 1893. The Expo is considered one of three biggest global events along, with the Olympics and the World Cup.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)