Tium Mobile opens in Lima, Peru, the 34th destination.

SK Telecom announced that it held an opening ceremony for its mobile ICT experience center, ‘T.um Mobile,’ at Suiza Elementary School in Lima, Peru.

This visit to Peru was sparked by T.um Mobile's visit to Barcelona, Spain, during MWC 2017 earlier this year. Since then, T.um Mobile's profile has grown in Spanish-speaking countries, leading to a string of invitations from Central and South American countries like Peru, Paraguay, and Argentina. SK Telecom plans to first visit Peru, which has emerged as the "center of the Korean Wave in Latin America" thanks to the popularity of K-pop and Korean dramas, to expand the reach of the Korean Wave into information and communications technology (ICT).

"Tium Mobile" underwent a complete transformation for its 34th destination, Lima, Peru. Inspired by the design of the "Boxschool," a mobile container classroom that won the grand prize in the Design Concept category at the 2015 Red Dot Award, a world-renowned design competition in Germany, the "Tium Mobile" maximized ease of construction and mobility. Leveraging the container's unique characteristics, it allows for rapid assembly and disassembly, as well as seamless mobility.

The Tium Mobile's journey to Lima, Peru, was long and arduous. First, the modification and production of the Tium Mobile alone took two months, starting in early July. The completed Tium Mobile and all its equipment were loaded onto a ship and, starting in late September, traveled 16,340 kilometers across the Pacific Ocean, arriving in Peru in late October. After going through customs clearance, local construction, and operational rehearsals, it finally opened.

'T.um Mobile', which visited Lima, Peru, showcased various ICT experience items such as coding/augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR)/hologram/Internet of Things (IoT) that were showcased in Barcelona, Spain during MWC 2017. In particular, this 'T.um Mobile' experience items reflected Peruvian culture and art, piquing the interest of local children. On the 22nd (local time), SK Telecom provided an opportunity to experience 'T.um Mobile' to about 100 children from Suiza Elementary School.

SK Telecom has decided to donate the entire "T.um Mobile" and experiential items to the local community following the opening ceremony. "T.um Mobile" will tour Peru over the next three years, working to bridge the ICT information gap for children. To this end, SK Telecom has also shared its expertise in operating the experiential center with officials from the Peruvian Ministry of Education and the Lima Education Office. SK Telecom stated, "We decided to donate "T.um Mobile" and share our operational expertise to contribute to improving Peru's educational environment and to take the lead in bridging the global ICT information gap."

Among the experiential items within "Tium Mobile" is the "Smart Robot Coding School." This software education program from SK Telecom won the "Global Enterprise Award" in the education category at the "ITU Telecom World 2017 Awards," an international ICT awards ceremony held in September. Since 2015, SK Telecom has been offering its "Smart Robot Coding School" in Central and South American countries, including Brazil, Costa Rica, and Argentina, and has also been promoting the "Latin American Smart Robot Pilot Project" in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). With the recent donation of "T.um Mobile" to Peru, the "Latin American software education Korean Wave," spearheaded by SK Telecom, is expected to accelerate further.

The opening ceremony was attended by Luis Alberto Manuel Garrido Schaeffer, Director of the Innovation and Technology Education Department of the Peruvian Ministry of Education; Lee Ye-seung, Secretary of the Korean Embassy in Peru; Killa Sumac Susana Miranda Troncos, Director of the Lima Board of Education; and Seo Bo-seong, CEO of SK Innovation's Lima branch. The event was also attended by approximately 50 students and staff from Suiza Elementary School, adding to its significance.

Participants celebrated the opening of 'T.um Mobile' with the 'ICT Sprouting (T.um)' ceremony. 'T.um' is a combination of 'T' from 'technology' and 'telecommunications' and 'um' from 'museum' and 'sprouting', and embodies SK Telecom's philosophy of 'sprouting the sprouts of the future with new ICT technology.'

After the 'ICT Sprout Sprouting' ceremony, the 'Dream Balloon Release' ceremony followed, where students wearing traditional Korean and Peruvian costumes presented about their dreams and released balloons containing messages of hope into the sky together. Afterwards, the participants had a meaningful time experiencing ‘Team Mobile’ firsthand.

Luis Alberto Manuel Garrido Schaefer, Director of the Innovation and Technology Education Department of the Peruvian Ministry of Education, said, “I was deeply impressed that a mobile ICT experience center created by a leading Korean ICT company came all the way to Peru,” and added, “The Peruvian Ministry of Education will also do its best to operate ‘Tium Mobile’ so that it can play a major role in bridging the ICT information gap for children in Peru.”

SK Telecom New Media Director Lee Jun-ho said, “We decided to visit Peru this time to take the lead in fulfilling our social responsibility of ‘resolving the global ICT information gap.’ We will continue to act as ‘Korea’s representative ICT company’ that creates global social value while simultaneously creating an ICT Korean Wave around the world.”