KT announced that it held the 2017 Board of Directors meeting of SCFA (Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement), a strategic cooperation body of Korea, China, and Japan's representative telecommunications companies, with China's China Mobile and Japan's NTT DOCOMO at the Conrad Hotel in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China.

At this meeting, discussions were held on cooperation plans in new areas such as artificial intelligence (AI) and narrowband Internet of Things (NB IoT) between the three companies. The meeting was attended by CEOs of the three Northeast Asian telecommunications companies, including KT Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu, China Mobile Chairman Shang Bing, and NTT DOCOMO President Yoshizawa Kazuhiro, as well as other senior executives.

SCFA, established in 2011 under KT's initiative, is Northeast Asia's largest strategic cooperation body among telecommunications operators. KT, China Mobile, and NTT DOCOMO, representing telecommunications companies of the three Northeast Asian countries, are actively promoting collaboration in 5G, roaming, apps, content, IoT, and marketing. Last year, the three companies agreed to extend strategic cooperation for the next five years, and plan to proceed with cooperation in various fields through the end of January 2022.

At this meeting, the three companies—KT, China Mobile, and NTT DOCOMO—agreed for the first time to establish an 'Artificial Intelligence Task Force (AI TF)' and decided to engage in close cooperation in technology and service development in the AI field. KT and China Mobile plan to refine each company's multilingual artificial intelligence database through mutual exchange of translation and interpretation data. Additionally, the three telecommunications companies of Korea, China, and Japan plan to share artificial intelligence voice recognition APIs to test various services and discover services for which mutual cooperation is possible.

KT's artificial intelligence TV 'Giga Genie,' unveiled earlier this year, has achieved highly favorable response by reaching 400,000 subscribers within 10 months of launch. Recently, the company has been working to expand the AI market by launching 'Giga Genie LTE,' the first domestically developed LTE-based AI speaker. In addition, KT has been making significant efforts in the AI field by establishing dedicated departments such as the AI Tech Center (R&D) and Giga Genie Business Division (services, ecosystem development) since the beginning of this year.

China Mobile and NTT DOCOMO are also applying AI technology to customer service, IoT, marketing, and other areas. Following collaboration with SoundHound, a representative AI company in Silicon Valley, USA, KT expects the newly established AI TF in SCFA to become a new opportunity for pursuing global AI business.

At this meeting, KT discussed cooperation plans with China Mobile and NTT DOCOMO in future networks and platform business areas such as 5G and IoT. In particular, KT signed a 'Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for IoT Business Cooperation Promotion' with China Mobile International (China Mobile's global business subsidiary) during the meeting period. It is anticipated that the need for long-term business cooperation between the two companies will increase, such as in inventory management for exports and imports of heavy equipment like construction and production machinery between Korea and China.

KT has already signed a business cooperation agreement with Migu (China Mobile's media content-specialized subsidiary) last September. Through this, KT is proceeding with cooperation with Migu, which has secured 500 million subscribers, in content business such as web comics, web novels, music, and video, as well as in character products and intellectual property rights. The two companies plan to actively promote product development and character marketing by utilizing each company's intellectual property rights going forward.

Meanwhile, at this meeting, KT's 'Free Wi-Fi Roaming' service for Korea, China, and Japan, which is the only domestic telecommunications company offering this service, received significant attention. The number of KT subscribers using free Wi-Fi roaming in China and Japan reached 100,000 within two months of launch.

Free Wi-Fi roaming is a service that conveniently automatically connects to Wi-Fi networks with just one initial setup without requiring separate ID and password entries. Among domestic telecommunications companies, only KT uniquely provides this service. Users can connect to China Mobile's Wi-Fi network in China and NTT DOCOMO's Wi-Fi network in Japan, just as they would connect to KT's Wi-Fi AP in Korea.

KT Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu said, "SCFA, marking its seventh year of establishment this year, has become the foundation for the three companies—KT, China Mobile, and NTT DOCOMO—to provide leading ICT services in the three Northeast Asian countries," adding, "Through Korea-China-Japan AI cooperation, KT will accelerate not only the advancement of domestic services but also the pursuit of global AI business."