KT Eyes Eurasian Market

Yoon Kyung-rim (second from right), vice president of the KT Global Business Promotion Division, pose for a photo along with Ulugbek Mustafoyev (third from right), chairman of Uzbekistan State Electric Power Corporation, Uzbek Energo, and Laziz Kudratov (right), first deputy chairman of the State Committe of Uzbekistan, after signing an agreement in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Kwon Yong-woo (left), Korean Ambassador to Uzbekistan was also on hand at the signing ceremony.

KT announced on September 21 that it signed a contract with the Uzbekistan power authority to supply a smart meter and operation system, which is worth 30 billion won (US$ 25 million). In the next two years, KT plans to install a smart meter system capable of bi-directional communication with 360,000 households in the three provinces of Samarkand, Jizac and Bukhara in Uzbekistan.

This is an additional contract that the Korean telecom giant won after building a smart meter system worthy of 120 billion won (US$ 100 million) in Uzbekistan in 2015. If KT installs the smart meter system, the Uzbekistan power authority will be able to automatically shut off or re-supply power in real time depending on whether a customer paid for electricity or not. This will solve the problem of unauthorized use of electricity without payment in Uzbekistan.

In addition, the Uzbekistan power authority can use the smart meter system to differentiate the cost of electricity for peak time and other times, lowering the use of electricity during the peak time. Uzbek electricity subscribers will be able to use electricity more efficiently as they will be able to check their electricity usage status and their bills in real time through an online site.

Based on the cooperation with Uzbekistan's energy business, KT not only maintains the traditional telecommunication services, but plans to expand to convergence projects such as smart city, fintech, and digital health care, and will continue to secure success cases through cooperation with domestic SMEs.

Yoon Kyung-rim, vice president of the KT Global Business Promotion Division, said, "Based on KT's experience and know-how accumulated in Uzbekistan, we will further accelerate the spread of smart meter systems throughout the Eurasian market."

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