SKT, SH Gongsa and ADT Caps Collaborate to Support Socially Isolated Single-Person Households

[Asia Economy Reporter Joselgina] SK Telecom announced on the 2nd that it has signed a business agreement with Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation (SH Corporation) and ADT Caps to establish an ICT-based crisis response system for single-person households.

The three companies decided to build a customized crisis response system for single-person households based on the latest ICT, targeting vulnerable groups such as elderly people living alone who are prone to feelings of loneliness and depression, as social isolation of single-person households has emerged as a social issue due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Statistics Korea, the number of single-person households in South Korea surpassed 6 million last year, accounting for more than 30% of all households. In particular, half of the single-person households are aged 50 or older, making it necessary to provide tailored support such as expanding social networks and preventing solitary deaths for middle-aged and elderly groups.

The three companies plan to develop a system that can comprehensively analyze various lifestyle service usage data such as communication and IoT sensors of single-person households based on ICT services provided by SK Telecom and ADT Caps, to detect and respond to risk situations in advance.

To this end, from this month until June next year, the three companies will operate 70 single-person households aged 50 or older in SH Corporation’s rental apartments as a ‘Living Lab.’ A ‘Living Lab’ is a method where residents and welfare service providers collaboratively seek solutions to social problems in real living spaces. SK Telecom will provide a big data-based monitoring service by integrating communication data and IoT sensor data of single-person households for ‘Living Lab’ residents who consent to data collection and analysis.

SK Telecom and ADT Caps will use communication data such as call and text message history and data usage timing, as well as six IoT sensors installed in the household measuring movement, temperature, illumination, etc., to check the safety of residents. Additionally, ADT Caps will conduct 24-hour monitoring based on this data to support rapid response and close care in emergency situations.

SH Corporation will be responsible for the overall planning and operation of the ‘Living Lab.’ Social workers and life support staff will regularly monitor residents’ lifestyle data to provide customized welfare programs for each household. They will also verify the effectiveness of the service with Gangnam University’s Future Welfare Convergence Research Institute and consider expanding the scope of service application within SH Corporation based on the results.

Wooonghwan Yoo, Head of SK Telecom’s SV Innovation Center, said, “Through this agreement, we hope to establish a social safety device that can care for single-person households and vulnerable groups even in the non-face-to-face era caused by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. We will continue to explore ways to strengthen the social safety net through 5G era technology and synergy with SK ICT family companies.”

Se-yong Kim, President of SH Corporation, said, “Through this Living Lab, we will create a crisis response system for single-person households that can operate more effectively on the ground. We will explore various ways to solve the social isolation problem of single-person households and continuously expand the size of social networks.”

Han Seok Han, Head of Strategic Planning at ADT Caps, said, “We will efficiently operate a system that can respond to emergencies that may occur at night and on holidays through the nationwide 24-hour integrated control network, and continuously launch various services that can help socially vulnerable groups to contribute to strengthening the social safety net.”

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