LG Uplus will take part in the International Water Industry Exhibition to showcase its communications technology capabilities that can be applied across the full scope of water and wastewater management.
LG Uplus said on the 19th that it will set up an exhibition booth at the International Water Industry Exhibition (WATER KOREA), held from Mar. 18 to 20 at the Busan Exhibition & Convention Center (BEXCO) Hall 1, to introduce water industry solutions ranging from remote water meter reading to facility safety management.
The International Water Industry Exhibition is the country's largest comprehensive event in the water industry, held since 2002. LG Uplus said it is attending this exhibition as the top telecom operator in remote water meter reading.
Since commercializing the nationwide NB-IoT (narrowband Internet of Things) network in July 2017 for the first time in the telecom industry, LG Uplus has been operating about 2.5 million lines in the remote water meter reading sector to date. Water meters are often buried underground or installed inside buildings, leading to frequent communication instability. To address this, LG Uplus uses the 850 MHz frequency band, which offers strong obstacle penetration and diffraction performance, to support smooth data transmission, the company said.
At this exhibition, LG Uplus will present Internet of Things (IoT) communications that deliver stable connectivity even under harsh conditions such as underground environments, along with essential solutions. Remote water meter reading automatically collects usage data via an IoT device attached to the meter and transmits it over the network, improving accuracy compared with on-site visits and detecting leaks or excessive use to help efficiently manage water resources.
In addition, the LG Uplus booth will showcase a field-customized AIoT solution that provides real-time control center monitoring of facility conditions across the entire process—from delivering treated water to homes to transporting it to wastewater treatment plants—and detects shocks and leaks to help respond to incidents.
In particular, working inside manholes involves numerous hazards, such as exposure to toxic gases and facility collapse. In response, LG Uplus has implemented a "smart facility safety monitoring" solution that remotely detects the condition of facilities such as water and sewer pipes through IoT devices and performs real-time diagnosis with AI. It also supports remote communications with workers to enable safe operations even in underground environments.
LG Uplus will also exhibit an "AI-based integrated control platform" that can monitor various devices at a glance. The platform analyzes data collected from IoT devices with AI to detect anomalies such as leaks and ground subsidence and controls devices remotely. Through a solution-specific customizable dashboard function, users can configure the platform freely, and it supports a cloud infrastructure environment to expand memory and more without additional development.
LG Uplus plans to continue expanding communications-based solutions that help efficiently operate the entire water industry. In particular, it will advance the AI algorithms within the AI-based integrated control platform to detect signs of abnormalities before actual problems occur and strengthen preemptive response capabilities.
Park Seong-yul, head of the Enterprise Business Innovation Group (executive vice president) at LG Uplus, said, "LG Uplus has consistently worked to improve the efficiency of water industry management based on stable capabilities built on superior-frequency IoT communications," adding, "Going forward, we will provide customized solutions that combine AI and IoT technologies to improve the operational efficiency of water resources management for local governments and the public sector and contribute to preventing safety accidents."