Over 2 Million OTT Access Tests Annually
Comprehensive Inspections from IPTV to IoT at the Daejeon R&D Center
LG Uplus employees inspecting the interoperability between network equipment and set-top boxes in the 'NW Interworking Test Room' located at the Daejeon R&D Center. Photo by LG Uplus
LG Uplus is conducting 24-hour product testing at its Daejeon R&D Center in pursuit of customer-centric service quality innovation. The company aims to deliver the highest quality of service as perceived by customers through continuous quality management from product development to post-launch stages.
The Daejeon R&D Center operates three specialized test labs. The 'Home Wireless Environment Test Lab' verifies the performance and stability of a total of 78 types of devices?including Wi-Fi routers, set-top boxes, and IoT devices?in an environment identical to an actual home before product launch. The recently released Wi-Fi 7 router was also tested here, where various tests on network connectivity and data transmission speed confirmed speeds up to four times faster than existing routers.
The 'Device SW Scenario Test Lab,' which houses 411 set-top boxes, is also in operation. This lab conducts an average of 13 channel switching and OTT access tests per day, simulating customer usage patterns. Using a total of 10 types of set-top boxes, the lab carries out up to 5,000 tests per day and about 2 million tests annually, with any detected errors being immediately addressed. The lab focuses on quality improvements that reflect customer usage habits. Seven key scenarios?channel switching, OTT access, power reboot, firmware upgrade, standby mode transition, and remote control usage?are simulated 24 hours a day, and issues such as overheating or speed reduction during prolonged use are also analyzed.
The 'NW Interworking Test Room' continuously monitors connectivity issues between the network and devices. Here, various potential failures that customers might encounter are analyzed and preemptively blocked through testing. In particular, internet and IPTV services are tested under a traffic load of about 1Gbps, which is heavier than typical customer environments. Through these efforts, LG Uplus was able to proactively address potential network failure issues for approximately 160,000 customers as of last year.
These quality innovation efforts are in line with the management philosophy of CEO Hong Beomsik, who emphasizes the importance of fundamentals. During his visit to the Daejeon R&D Center in January, Hong stated, "Only when the fundamentals are firmly established can we deliver differentiated value," and stressed the importance of "repeated network quality verification and testing under extreme conditions."
LG Uplus plans to continuously upgrade its quality testing environment in line with evolving technology trends. In particular, the company intends to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) technology to preemptively address customer complaints or inconveniences and to enhance the accuracy and efficiency of quality verification.
Kang Bongsoo, Head of the Quality Innovation Center at LG Uplus (Executive Director), stated, "True quality innovation is about preemptively preventing inconveniences that customers may experience," and added, "We will focus on improving service quality using AI and other technologies to deliver a differentiated customer experience."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
