Collaboration with Verizon?
LG U+ Vice Chairman and CEO Kwon Young-soo is actively seeking out new businesses in the United States. He has had meetings with officials from information and communications technology (ICT) companies in the country, such as Verizon, Apple and Cisco to develop new businesses, including the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and connected cars.
“AI will form a huge market along with big data in the future,” Kwon said in a press conference, on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2017 in Las Vegas on January 6.
He also said the company will form a partnership particularly with foreign telecom companies, mentioning Verizon. He said, “We had the first meeting with Verizon during this year's CES. We think we can learn a lot as Verizon has expertise in industrial IoT and big data management solutions. We will keep meeting with Verizon to discuss agenda and cooperation directions together. However, no specific progress has been made about how we will extend our home IoT presence into the North American market.”
Kwon added, “LG Electronics boasts expertise in AI technologies – such as voice recognition. We believe we can generate more AI business opportunities by strengthening group-wide collaborations within the sector, but we don’t have plans to release products like Nugu, a voice control enabled speaker launched by SK Telecom last year, right now."
Kwon said that LGU+ is checking out startups in the AI and big data sectors as well. He said, “We were curious about relevant startups and we saw a lot of potential in startups at the CES. We are not at the stage acquiring AI startups yet.”
In regard to the commercialization of the fifth-generation (5G) network, he said, “As the 4G is not being completely replaced with the 5G, it is not necessarily good to be done quickly. We will thoroughly conduct it in a timely manner.”