KT Provides Free Support for 'Untact Religion' to Prevent COVID-19

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] Amid concerns over the spread of COVID-19 and restrictions on group activities, KT is supporting communication using Olleh tv.

KT announced on the 8th that it will provide the ‘Olleh tv CUG’ service free of charge from March to June to religious organizations that have temporarily suspended offline meetings to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to local public health centers focusing on infectious disease response work, supporting communication between groups.

Olleh tv CUG (Closed User Group) is a self-operated broadcasting station run by a specific organization. It is used as a means of information sharing and communication by religious groups, local governments, companies, apartment resident associations, and clubs. The most representative service among them is ‘Uri Church tv.’ Currently, about 190 churches operate Uri Church tv. Approximately 2 million church members use this service.

Customers using the Uri Church tv service can watch sermons, Bible studies, praise videos, and church news of their church through Olleh tv channel 888. Additionally, each organization can easily and conveniently broadcast live by using a separately assigned channel number (# + four digits), allowing members of the organization to continue their faith life and group activities at home through their TV screens. For other organizations such as Catholic, Buddhism, and local public health centers, the same service as Uri Church tv will be provided free of charge through channel 900 (My Club).

With Olleh tv CUG, when the administrator uploads VOD, images, texts, etc. directly to the management site, members of the organization can watch them through the channel assigned to the organization. For live broadcasts, videos can be recorded with a dedicated smartphone app and sent to the dedicated channel number (# + four digits) for nationwide transmission. Members can watch live broadcasts by moving to the channel number provided by the administrator and entering the authentication number. Religious organizations or local public health centers wishing to use the Olleh tv CUG service can inquire through the dedicated customer center.

KT’s AI speaker Giga Genie also allows free listening to the Bible, Buddhist scriptures, and Mass. Users can access the service by saying, “Genie, play the Bible,” or “Genie, play the Buddhist scriptures.”

Song Jae-ho, Executive Vice President of KT Media Platform Business Division, said, “As offline religious activities have been suspended due to the COVID-19 situation and there is a growing trend to replace them online, we decided to provide the Olleh tv CUG service free of charge so that religious activities such as worship, Mass, and Buddhist ceremonies can continue at home through Olleh tv.” He added, “KT will actively utilize its communication infrastructure to alleviate the inconveniences in people’s lives caused by the spread of COVID-19 and contribute to public safety.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.