“We’ll strive to demonstrate more visible results in the global market based on our strong network platform service as an innovative enterprise that represents this country. I hope to bring better performance in global IT export this year, possibly from the Middle East and China.”
“Today, telecommunication is as much about data as it is about speed. KT has been and will be the leader in IoT, which is about super-connectivity.”
– KT Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu
KT Chairman Hwang is handing out potted plants to employees to celebrate KT’s relocation to a new company building ‘East’ in central Seoul. (image courtesy of Yonahap)
SEOUL, Jan. 26 (Korea Bizwire) – The head of South Korea’s No. 2 mobile carrier KT Corp. pledged Monday to lift the company’s global sales to 2 trillion won (US$1.85 billion) by 2016, as it opts to increase sales of mobile infrastructure technology overseas and invest more in future businesses like the Internet-of-Things (IoT).
“We’ll strive to demonstrate more visible results in the global market based on our strong network platform service as an innovative enterprise that represents this country,” KT Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu told reporters.
KT posted 344.7 billion won in revenue from its global business in 2014, up 12.7 percent from a year earlier.
Hwang said he hopes to bring better performance in global IT export this year, possibly from the Middle East and China. Up until last year, KT had signed contracts to build infrastructure for data storage system and LTE network in Tanzania and Rwanda.
A former executive of the world’s top smartphone maker Samsung Electronics Co. has put out a vision since taking office early last year that a mobile carrier should reach out for business convergence beyond just providing telecommunication services.
“Today, telecommunication is as much about data as it is about speed. KT has been and will be the leader in IoT, which is about super-connectivity,” he added.
KT, privatized in 2002, has focused on transforming its profit sources to advanced IT technology such as commercialization of the 5G network and IoT, a concept of interconnectivity through all Internet-based devices, among other fields including health care, security and energy system.
KT has been undergoing a belt-tightening program since Hwang took the top post, whereby more than 8,000 employees took voluntary retirement, apart from a big staff cutdown. In the third quarter of last year, the company turned around from three consecutive quarters of net losses and logged 73.9 billion won in net profit, paving the way for future upturns.
(Yonhap)
