The city of Daegu has been chosen as the pilot city to test-drive a city-wide implementation of the Internet of Things (IoT).

The Daegu Metropolitan City government recently joined hands with Samsung Electronics and SK Telecom to transform Daegu into a "smart city" with an open network for the Internet of Things. This ties in with the city's efforts to cultivate its startup businesses.

The pilot city will be a zone free of IoT regulations, and the Daegu government will be in charge of providing administrative and financial support to the region's startup businesses.

Samsung Electronics will provide equipment related to the IoT and the open network infrastructure, and will lend its support to technical development by sharing intellectual property rights pertaining to the IoT.

SK Telecom will supply the telecommunications infrastructure and offer its expertise in energy efficiency, cloud computing and big data, and IoT solutions. In preparation for the pilot project, the company is setting up a specialized IoT open network that covers the entirety of the Daegu metropolitan area, to be completed by May 2016. An open lab where new services can be developed and verified is also in the works.

Kwon Young-jin, mayor of the Daegu Metropolitan City government, said, "Daegu City has been given an opportunity to become the center of the IT industry. We will be providing full administrative and financial support so that we can emerge as the new incubator for startup businesses."

By Lee Hana
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photo: Samsung Newsroom Flickr
hlee10@korea.kr