Global Contagion Prevention
The roaming data-based global contagion prevention project, which was proposed by KT chairman Hwang Chang-gyu to telecommunication providers around the world in June, will begin in earnest.
KT, South Korea's second-largest mobile carrier, announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), and UNGC Foundation at the UNGC office in New York, the U.S., on September 19 (local time), attended by KT chairman Hwang Chang-gyu, UNGC executive director Lise Kingo, and UNGC Foundation chairman Sir Mark Moody-Stuart. The UNGC is a UN initiative to encourage businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation. About 8,800 companies and 14,000 organizations from 160 countries around the world are participating in the UNGC to deliver the sustainability goals.
Hwang first proposed at the UNGC Leaders summit 2016 in June to establish a system to prevent infectious diseases from spreading by using big data. The chairman said that it is a project to address contagious diseases that threaten humanity, such as Zika virus and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), by releasing KT’s big data algorithms related to avian influenza (AI) and foot-and-mouth diseases. The MOU is a direct follow up to the proposal.
In particular, Hwang proposed that 800 global telecommunications companies share roaming data to prevent contagions from spreading, in and asked all the governments and the UN to actively participate in the project. He also asked the UN to relax regulations over private information as manager of roaming data provided by governments and telecommunications firms.
The latest MOU is the first step to build the contagion prevention system. KT will aggressively take part in international events, including UNGC Leaders summit and Sustainability Forum, and spread and carry out the project across the world through various partnerships with the UN and its affiliated organizations in the future.