SK Telecom Holds IoT Business Idea Contest
12 selected, including 'structural crack detection monitoring'

It is expected that individuals, startups, and industry-academia-research collaborations will participate in the development of IoT-based lifestyle and industrial services, serving as the seeds that foster the ecosystem of new IoT businesses.

SK Telecom announced that it has finally selected 12 excellent ideas with commercialization potential, including "structural crack detection monitoring," at the "Biz Idea Festival," an idea contest held to discover new LoRa-based services.

Reflecting the growing interest in the new IoT industry, this year's competition received more than double the number of new ideas from individual developers, startups, and small and medium-sized enterprises across various fields compared to last year. Approximately 20% of these proposals came from individuals, raising expectations that ideas for diverse lifestyle services based on dedicated IoT networks will continue to be generated.

The Grand Prize was awarded to 'Structural Crack Detection Monitoring,' which uses smart sensors attached to fastening points of structures such as bridges and trains to detect loose screws or cracks, thereby preventing safety accidents in advance.

The Excellence Award went to the 'LoRa Lock,' which installs a LoRa module on the lock to notify the owner via text message if the password is entered incorrectly or if the lock is damaged. It allows for remote response in the event of an abnormal situation while away, thereby protecting against external intrusion, and can be used by households using independent locks.

In addition to this, various new ideas were proposed that were made possible by the 'low usage fees,' a strength of the dedicated IoT network, including landscaping tree theft prevention, smart guardians for disabled parking areas, and forest pest and disease monitoring.

SK Telecom plans to award a total of 50 million won in prize money, including 20 million won for the top prize, and provide full support for commercialization, such as providing LoRa dedicated modules free of charge, network/platform interoperability testing through an open testbed, and device development verification.

SK Telecom publicized the contest throughout October not only to existing partners but also to startups and LINC (Leading Industry-University Cooperation) universities to encourage the submission of more ideas. Thanks to these efforts, enthusiasm for the IoT business was high, with the number of visitors to the IoT portal (lora.sktiot.com) during the contest period increasing by more than five times compared to usual.

Meanwhile, SK Telecom plans to sign a "business agreement ceremony regarding the promotion of IoT-LPWA business" with the Jeju National University LINC* Project Group on the 14th to promote industry-academia-research collaboration. Through this, the company plans to establish an industry-academia-research-centered LoRa commercialization system by expanding partnerships with LINC project groups at universities nationwide and linking business with startup partners within the university.

Kwon Song, Head of the IoT Solution Division at SK Telecom, said, “The ideas selected this time were directly evaluated and chosen by the IoT business division with the goal of commercialization,” adding, “We will further strengthen the ecosystem of LoRa, the dedicated IoT network, by promptly pursuing commercialization through collaboration with the proposing companies and individuals.”