By Ian Werther in News — 19 Mar 2026

LG Uplus Demonstrates AIoT Water Monitoring for U.S. Utilities at WATER KOREA

LG Uplus, one of South Korea’s major wireless carriers, is showcasing its water-industry communications capabilities at WATER KOREA, the country’s largest water sector exhibition. The event is being held at Busan’s BEXCO convention center, with LG Uplus displaying from the 18th to the 20th at Hall 1.

The company says it is a leading provider in remote water metering and is using WATER KOREA to present solutions across the full water-utility value chain, from meter reading to facility safety management. LG Uplus has positioned itself as a pioneer in nationwide IoT connectivity for utilities, highlighting its ongoing role in this sector.

LG Uplus notes that it commercialized its NB-IoT nationwide network in July 2017, and it now operates about 2.5 million lines for water remote metering. The technology is intended to enable automated collection of usage data from meters that are often buried underground or installed inside buildings, where conventional wireless signals can be unreliable.

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.

To address challenging underground and indoor environments, the carrier is promoting use of the 850 MHz frequency band, which it says offers better penetration and signal propagation. This aims to ensure more stable data transmission from IoT devices deployed in harsh conditions.

At the booth, LG Uplus will present IoT communications and essential solutions designed to support remote metering and overall facility management in the water industry. The focus is on improving data accuracy compared with traditional on-site visits and on identifying leaks or excessive usage for more efficient resource management.

In addition to remote metering, LG Uplus will demonstrate AIoT-equipped solutions that monitor the end-to-end flow of water—from treatment facilities to households and wastewater plants—and provide real-time monitoring of facility conditions, including detection of impacts or leaks to support incident response.

A highlight is the “Smart Facility Safety Monitoring” system, which remotely tracks the status of water and sewer infrastructure via IoT terminals and uses AI to diagnose issues in real time. The system is designed to support remote communication with workers for safer operations in underground environments.

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.

LG Uplus will also present an AI-based Integrated Control Platform that aggregates data from IoT devices, uses AI to detect anomalies such as leaks or ground subsidence, and enables remote control of devices. The platform supports customizable dashboards and cloud infrastructure to scale deployments without additional development.

Park Seong-yul, head of LG Uplus’ Enterprise Business Innovation Group, said the company will continue expanding AI and IoT-based solutions to improve efficiency in water resources management and safety. He emphasized plans to help local governments and public sector users optimize operations through tailored, technology-driven services.

Why this matters beyond Korea: U.S. water utilities are under pressure to modernize aging infrastructure, reduce non-revenue water, and improve resilience against outages. The demonstration of NB-IoT and AIoT-enabled metering and real-time monitoring in Korea illustrates a model for how telecom networks can underpin smart-water programs, potentially affecting technology procurement, interoperability standards, and supply chains for American cities and vendors. The approach also highlights considerations around data integration, cloud-enabled analytics, remote operations, and worker safety that are relevant to utilities and policymakers in the United States as they plan upgrades and ensure cyber-physical security.

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