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South Korean operator expects to connect 4 million things by end of 2017.
SK Telecom on Monday commercially launched its IoT network and unveiled a range of tariffs pitched at different industries.
The network covers 99% of South Korea’s population and is based on the LoRaWAN standard, which uses unlicensed spectrum. The deployment was completed at the end of June, six months earlier than originally planned.
"It marks the first important step towards realising connectivity between [an] infinite number of things, going beyond the traditional role of telecommunications centred on connectivity between people," said Lee Hyung-hee, president of SK Telecom’s mobile network business, in a statement.
SK Telecom unveiled a range of flat-rate, monthly price plans targeted at different IoT verticals.
The entry-level tariffs start 350 won (€0.27) for 100 KB of data and are pitched at smart meters and environmental monitoring sensors. The mid-range tariffs start at KRW700 for 3 MB of data and have been developed with people and asset-tracking in mind. Finally, the top-range price plans start at KRW1,500 for 50 MB and are aimed at control services, such as lighting and safety equipment.
Various discounts are applied depending on the length of contract and the number of connections required.
SK Telecom reiterated its intention to spend KRW100 billion (€78 million) to the end of 2017 to develop its own range of IoT services, with a particular focus on metering, tracking and monitoring, and with strong support for SMEs.
It expects this effort to result in 4 million devices connected to its IoT network by the end of next year.
As well as in-house service development, SK Telecom also plans to set up a partner programme that will provide an IoT testbed for SMEs and start-ups to work on their own services. The company has also started giving away 100,000 LoRa modules in order to drive uptake.
