South Korean operator SK Telecom wants to establish a global roaming network for Internet of Things (IoT) services in partnership with overseas telecom operators. SK Telecom believes that the global IoT roaming network will enable services such as luggage tracking, The Korea Times reports, citing SK Telecom's R&D center SVP Park Jin-hyo. "We will actively share our knowhow obtained while establishing and commercializing the LoRa network nationwide with partners at home and abroad, contributing to a global IoT ecosystem," Jin-hyo said.
SK Telecom said it has recently participated in a meeting in Nice, France, to discuss partnerships for establishing an international roaming system for the LoRa network connecting Korea and Europe. LoRa networks are designed to provide wide coverage, low energy consumption and long battery life for IoT modules for small devices. The technology was developed by the LoRa Alliance, a group of global mobile carriers and network equipment makers that includes Cisco and IBM.
On 4 July, SK Telecom launched its LoRa network in Korea, with plans to connect 4 million IoT devices by 2017.
SK Telecom reports it has suggested to its partners, including Telefonica and French system integration providers EGM and CEA, to jointly develop a LoRa-based roaming system. The French companies, which are currently testing their LoRa networks in Europe, applauded the idea and agreed to discuss standardization of roaming systems, SK Telecom said.
