Development of innovative business of telecommunication operator: Case of KT-MEG

Abstract

Mobile operators globally are endeavoring to expand beyond legacy communications/media business to create new growth engine based on information and communication technology (ICT). This research studies the case of KT to see how a mobile operator expanded beyond its existing offerings to new smart energy business leveraging digital technology. Details were analyzed specifically how the business was developed, why the smart energy service was started, and what the success factors were. KT's smart energy business (KT-MEG: KT Micro Energy Grid) utilizes ICT to resolve energy issues such as global climate change and energy consumption growth and provides growth opportunities for KT with its KT-MEG platform. We analyze that KT was able to leverage sustainability as a new growth engine by developing new businesses to differentiate customer experience, creating effective organization structure, and generating business impact in addition to leveraging latest ICT technologies such as artificial intelligence, IoT (Internet of Things) and big data.