Korean and Finnish Telcos LGU+ and Elisa Join Forces on 5G Development

LG Uplus, the South Korean mobile network operator and Elisa Corporation, the Finnish mobile network operator, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at the Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona.

The MoU defines the partnership for cooperation in innovation, startup collaborations, service and network automation development. Both LG Uplus and Elisa have high priorities for 5G services in their respective countries and will actively roll out 5G base stations during 2019. The MoU will help the mobile network operators work on ensuring high network quality for their customers and advance in the development of network automation for 4G and 5G. The parties will also cooperate to identify new business opportunities with international startups. Both LG Uplus and Elisa has experience from collaborating with startups to improve operation and serve customers. The MoU will support and benefit the companies and startups in their future collaborations.

Mr. Hyunhwoi Ha, Vice Chairman of LG Group and CEO of LG Uplus. said, “Elisa is the leading mobile data providers in Finland. We are impressed with their agile way of developing new services with startups and their network automation innovations. Working together with Elisa will help us operate our network more efficiently and benefit our customers”.

Veli-Matti Mattila, CEO of Elisa Corporation said that [i"LG Uplus is a forerunner in 5G services and in the adoption of 5G technologies. We believe that this partnership will help us and LG Uplus to develop and improve both 5G and existing network operations. We are also excited to work with LG Uplus on startup partnerships. This has been a success at Elisa and we believe working together will take startup collaborations one step further.”[/i]

Kirsi Valtari, VP, Head of Elisa Automate mentioned that “LG Uplus is rolling out large scale 5G networks in a technology driven country with high customer expectations and great quality of service. We expect that this cooperation for joint development of AI powered automation to be a game changer and that it will improve the way networks are being operated even further”.


LG Uplus Corp. is a South Korean fixed/broadband/mobile network operator, owned by LG Corporation. As the first operator in the world to establish a nationwide LTE network in 2012, our operations have been continuously creating new values to more than 25 million subscribers by leading latest telecommunication services including IoT and digital medias. As a pioneer in 5G, our mission is to become the next leader of Fourth Industrial Revolution fields, create more diversified services that customers can continue to trust and love. Further information on www.lguplus.co.kr.

Elisa is a pioneer in telecommunications and digital services. We serve approximately 2.8 million consumer, corporate and public administration organisation customers, and have over 6.2 million subscriptions in our extensive network. Cooperation with Vodafone and Telenor, among others, enables globally competitive services. Our core markets are Finland and Estonia, and we also provide digital services for international markets. Elisa’s shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki. In 2018, our revenue was EUR 1.83 billion euros, and we employed 4,800 people. As a responsible Finnish market leader, our operations are guided by continuous improvement. Further information on www.elisa.com, Facebook (@elisasuomi) and Twitter (@ElisaOyj).

Elisa Automate offers solutions and services for operators to automate network management and operations. The value promise is to improve service quality and operator cost efficiency. With Elisa Automate solutions, network activities can be fully automated, allowing experts to focus on more value-creating development tasks. Operators can efficiently and effortlessly analyse and better understand their networks and customer experience. Utilizing machine learning technologies, Elisa Automate brings advanced predictive analytics and preventive maintenance to the networks. Leading the way in efficiency, Elisa Automate solutions ensure that operators get maximal benefit out of their networks and investments. www.elisaautomate.com