LG Uplus was selected as the preferred bidder for a 60 billion won public bus Wi-Fi project.
On the 12th, according to the Public Procurement Service's Nara Marketplace and the telecom industry, LG Uplus was selected as the preferred bidder for the "public bus Wi-Fi service provision and user support project" ordered by the National Information Society Agency (NIA).
LG Uplus was chosen after scoring a combined 99.9868 points based on bid price and technical evaluation, beating KT (96.9868 points) and SK Telecom (94 points).
Through this project, LG Uplus will replace existing public Wi-Fi equipment with Wi-Fi 7 access points (AP) based on a 5G (fifth-generation) backhaul. Wi-Fi 7 is a next-generation wireless communication technology that significantly increases transmission and response speeds compared with existing Wi-Fi. The project covers 32,857 city buses nationwide, excluding Jeju Island. The service operation period is four years, from September to the end of August 2030, and the total project cost is about 59.93 billion won.
With this project, city bus Wi-Fi speeds nationwide are expected to get faster. A more stable wireless internet environment is also anticipated during commuting hours when usage surges.
The monthly data allowance per bus will also be expanded to 300 gigabytes (GB), up from the current level. The total monthly data provided to 32,857 buses nationwide will be 9,857 terabytes (TB).
Public bus Wi-Fi usage has been steadily increasing. Annual data usage grew from 38,728 TB in 2023 to 62,928 TB in 2024. It rose to 75,777 TB last year.