By Ian Werther in News — 19 Mar 2026

LG Uplus to Be First Telecom Participant at Busan's International Water Industry Expo

LG Uplus will showcase at the International Water Industry Expo in Busan, marking the telecom sector’s first participation in the event. The company said it will set up a booth at Busan’s BEXCO convention center from the 18th to 20th, and use the expo to present its water industry solutions.

The expo, held at BEXCO’s Exhibition Hall 1, has operated since 2002 and features equipment displays and conferences among roughly 30 related events. It connects businesses, academia, government agencies, and international organizations to foster industry development and collaboration in the water sector.

Water fountain found in a small Swiss village. They are used as a drinking water source for people and cattle. Almost every Alpine village has such a water source. — Representative image for context; not directly related to the specific event in this article. License: CC BY-SA 3.0. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

LG Uplus notes that it commercialized a nationwide narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) network in July 2017 and currently operates about 2.5 million lines for water remote metering. It argues that water meters are often buried underground or installed indoors, where conventional communications can be unstable; the 850 MHz frequency band used by NB-IoT offers better penetration and more reliable data transmission.

At the expo, LG Uplus will present IoT communications capable of stable operation in subterranean environments, along with essential solutions for the water industry. Water remote metering involves attaching IoT devices to meters to automatically collect usage data and transmit it over the network, delivering higher accuracy and enabling detection of leaks and abnormal usage patterns.

Other displays include field AIoT solutions tailored to water supply and management, a “smart facility safety monitoring” system to protect workers performing manhole work, and an AI-based integrated control platform designed to manage multiple devices from a single interface. LG Uplus says it will continue expanding telecom-based solutions to improve overall efficiency across water utilities.

Three Bubalus bubalis (water buffaloes) bathing in the Mekong in Don An (Si Phan Don, Laos) with their heads above water. These buffaloes are often cooling themselves in the water (or in the mud), when the weather is hot. These working animals have nose ropes to facilitate their handling during the labour season, though here in March they are not attached and are free to move where they want all around the island, sometimes even crossing the river. — Representative image for context; not directly related to the specific event in this article. License: CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Park Seong-yul, head of LG Uplus’ Enterprise Business Innovation Group, stated that the company aims to continually boost efficiency in water industry management by combining AI and IoT in customized solutions for local governments and public entities, contributing to safer operation and accident prevention.

Beyond Korea, the event highlights a global push to modernize critical infrastructure through digital technologies. For U.S. readers, the developments illustrate how utilities can leverage low-power, wide-area networks and AIoT to reduce leaks, improve metering accuracy, and strengthen resilience in water systems, while raising considerations around cybersecurity, data interoperability, and cross-border supply chains as such technologies spread.

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