South Korea’s LG Group plans to go ahead with a long-considered merger of its three telecom units to boost its consumer base and strengthen service offerings.

South Korea’s LG Group plans to go ahead with a long-considered merger of its three telecom units to boost its consumer base and strengthen service offerings. The three companies are mobile carrier LG Telecom, fixed line operator LG Dacom and broadband firm LG Powercom. A merger is seen as necessary for LG to compete with bigger telecom competitors like KT Corp and SK Telecom, as operators in the saturated Korean market focus on locking in customers through products bundling mobile, fixed line and internet services. KT merged its mobile unit KTF in early 2009 while SK Telecom controls broadband affiliate SK Broadband.