SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM) today announced that it joined the LoRa Alliance (http://lora-alliance.org)*, the largest consolidated effort by industry leaders to enable the Internet of Things (IoT). The company also unveiled plans to promote the trial launch of diverse ‘Internet of Small Things**’ services.

* The LoRa Alliance is an open, non-profit association initiated by industry leaders with a mission to standardize Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) being deployed around the world to enable IoT. The Alliance members are working together to drive the global success of the LoRa protocol (LoRaWAN), by sharing knowledge and experience to guarantee interoperability between operators in one open global standard.

** Internet of Small Things refers to the connectivity of small-sized things that measure and process a small amount of simple information such as temperature, humidity, weight, and location.

As the first Asian mobile carrier to join the LoRa Alliance, SK Telecom said that it will collaborate with other members to achieve the international standardization of LPWAN. In addition, the company will build a strong partnership with global telecommunications companies that adopt LoRa’s LPWAN, and work closely with them to develop related products and services.

LPWAN is a type of telecommunications network designed to support communication among small IoT devices. The industry expects that billions of devices will be connected by 2020, which also leads to the projection that a new ecosystem for the Internet of Small Things will be created apart from the existing one for high-end smart devices that require high-speed/broadband networks. Against this backdrop, many companies are showing great interest in LPWAN as it can transmit data over tens of kilometers while consuming much less power.

Going forward, SK Telecom will develop meters (measuring instruments) applied with LPWAN, and launch trial services by applying LoRa's LPWAN to diverse B2B solutions, including bicycle state information and location monitoring solution, trade area analysis solution and smart street light control solution.

SK Telecom will then contribute to the advancement of the Internet of Small Things technologies as well as the establishment of the ecosystem by sharing its knowhow acquired through these trial services with the LoRa Alliance.

"As a member of the LoRa Alliance, SK Telecom will actively develop services applied with the LPWAN technologies to deliver new value to our customers through the Internet of Small Things," said Lee Hyung-hee, President of Network Operations Business at SK Telecom. "We will make efforts to successfully launch a variety of trial services, with the aim to offer them to customers throughout the nation."

“We welcome our new member SK Telecom, the biggest mobile service provider in Korea. We believe that our technologies will ensure enhanced connectivity among things, which will be translated into more diverse services that meet customers’ needs” said Staale Pettersen, president of the LoRa Alliance.

Meanwhile, SK Telecom is conducting many researches and studies in diverse networks specialized for the IoT so as to ensure flawless provision of various new and innovative IoT services.

In this context, in June, SK Telecom entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Ericsson, a global leading provider of telecommunications solutions and services, to collaborate on the development of LTE-based Machine Type Communications (or LTE MTC) technologies and its related business. LTE MTC refers to the communication that occurs between machines, applications, servers and devices over an LTE network. As it uses the existing LTE network for data communications, LTE MTC ensures cost-effective and stable communications for IoT services.