South Korea: SK Telecom launches 3 IoT devices .

South Korea's top mobile carrier SK Telecom Co. said Monday that it has launched three gadgets using Internet of Things (IoT) technology. 

The IoT tech, which allows everyday appliances to link to the Internet, is seen as one of the major technological developments of the Internet and a new revenue source for telecoms firms. 

"Keyco" is an IoT-based keychain with an embedded GPS chip for pets that can be controlled by a smartphone, allowing the owner to pinpoint the location of their pets, the company said.

The gadget is equipped with an alarm to tell users if their pets are more than a certain distance away or having an emergency, it said.

"Smart TocToc" is an IoT-powered alarm for a vehicle that instantly alerts the user's smartphone if there is an impact on the parked car.

"IoT Blackbox" is a combination of video, audio and GPS for a vehicle that sends a text message to an owner's smartphone to better monitor the car remotely.

SK Telecom said it plans to launch up to 50 IoT-based services and products by the end of this year.

MWC 2017: SK Telecom to Unveil "360 VR Live".

SK Telecom today announced that it will unveil its 360-degree live broadcast platform named '360 Adaptive VR Live Streaming Platform (hereinafter referred to as "360 VR Live")' at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017 to be held in Barcelona, Spain, from February 27 to March 2.

360 VR Live is an innovative end-to-end broadcast system that enables users to produce and livestream ultra-high-definition (UHD) 360-degree virtual reality (VR) video with low latency using a 360-degree camera.

The platform produces UHD VR content through its differentiated stitching technology. When it comes to creating 360-degree visuals, it is important to seamlessly stitch multiple videos or images taken by the 360 camera. Based on multi-band blending algorithm, the platform stitches images in multi layers to produce a seamless 360 VR content without any distortion. In terms of frame rate, it supports 60 frames per second (FPS), which is translated into two times higher image quality than that of its competitors.

Moreover, 360 Live VR has significantly reduced the bandwidth required for transmitting 360 video data. Generally, live streaming of 360 VR video requires up to six times greater bandwidth than traditional broadcasting. However with the platform, the size of the 360 VR video file is reduced by 35 percent, while not compromising the image quality thanks to dynamic tiling.

In addition, applied with 'T Live Streaming*,' an innovative real-time streaming technology developed by SK Telecom, 360 VR Live creates a better environment for live broadcasting of 360-degree VR video by dramatically reducing latency from over 20 seconds to less than five seconds.

*SK Telecom developed T Live Streaming in May 2016 by customizing 'MPEG Media Transport (MMT),' a standard developed by the Moving Picture Expert Group (MPEG)*, to the mobile network environment.

360 VR Live creates a truly immersive experience by providing realistic 3D audio: Based on binaural rendering technology, 3D audio recognizes, in real time, the user's accurate location including the direction of his/her eyes and provides sounds consistent with the user's location.

For instance, while watching a live travelling content, users will feel as if they themselves have teleported to a distant and exotic location not only because of what they see but also because of what they hear. 

The volume of sounds – e.g. background noise, voices, etc. – changes according to what the user is looking at: When the user looks at the tour guide, the voice of the guide will be heard loud and clear. Then, when he turns his head to the right to enjoy the scenery, the voice will be heard louder in his left ear than right ear. When the user looks back, the voice will be smaller for both ears.

SK Telecom plans to commercialize 360 VR Live initially in the enterprise market for broadcasting companies and social networking sites. The company will also open its application programming interface (API) to build a new media ecosystem. With the API, individuals and small content developers will be able to create and offer 360 VR Live services.

"Immersive live VR broadcasting will become widespread in the 5G era. SK Telecom will focus on building a new media ecosystem by joining hands with diverse partners," said Park Jin-hyo, Senior Vice President and Head of Network Technology R&D Center of SK Telecom.

About SK Telecom

Established in 1984, SK Telecom is the largest mobile operator in Korea by both revenue and number of subscribers. As of December 2016, the company holds around 50 percent of the market, with 29.60 million mobile subscribers including 21.1 million LTE subscribers. It has reached KRW 17.092 trillion in revenue in 2016.

SK Telecom has led the advancement of mobile technologies ranging from 2G to 4G, and is currently setting important milestones in its journey to 5G. The company is not only leading innovation in the field of mobile network, but also providing IoT, media, home and platform services.

SK Telecom is determined to play a significant role in the Fourth Industrial Revolution by achieving innovations and promoting shared growth with other players in the industry.

For more information, please visit www.sktelecom.com/en or contact skt_press@sk.com.

SOURCE SK Telecom.

Nokia and SK Telecom Develop Mission-Critical Push-To-Talk (MCPTT) Solution Over VoLTE.

SK Telecom and Nokia have announced joint development of “Mission-Critical Push-To-Talk (MCPTT) solution, which is a next-generation push-to-talk communications technology over VoLTE, and demonstrated the solution at Nokia's Research and Development Center in Kraków, Poland.

SK Telecom plans to utilize the MCPTT solution for Public Safety-LTE (PS-LTE) and LTE-Railroad (LTE-R) in Korea and also expects to expand its reach to countries that are currently promoting the public safety network projects such as the United States and Great Britain.

As the standard for mission-critical-voice functionality over LTE adopted by the 3GPP standards body, MCPTT enables efficient communication among hundreds of rescue workers by using a dedicated channel at times of massive disasters.

Unlike the existing IP-based push-to-talk, which is heavily affected by the number of users on the same network, MCPTT ensures high-quality communications as it uses the VoLTE network and supports a stable group communications service - even when there is a surge in users - through the application of Group Communication System Enabler (GCSE) based on evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (eMBMS).  

GCSE is an eMBMS-based group communication technology adopted by 3GPP. eMBMS is a technology that can transmit large-volume multimedia content to massive users at once over wireless LTE network.

For this reason, emergency service organizations such as police and fire fighting agencies in countries like Korea, the United States and Great Britain called for the development of MCPTT, and as the result the technology has been standardized in March 2016 by the 3GPP standard body through close cooperation and active participation of these relevant organizations.

MWC 2016: SK Telecom and Deutsche Telekom Establish Strategic Technology and Business Partnership.

The two companies entered into a strategic partnership agreement at MWC 2016 to strengthen their global technology leadership and deliver new value to customers.

- The market-leaders of Korea and Germany will collaborate in the areas of IoT and media platform, while driving technology innovations and standardization of ICT including key 5G technologies and Network-IT Infrastructure.

- The parties also agreed to work together to bring innovative solutions and products/services to each other’s customers.

SK Telecom  and Deutsche Telekom announced today that they entered into a strategic business partnership agreement to collaborate in the fields of services, Internet of Things (IoT) and related R&D areas.

With the aim to strengthen their capabilities as ICT industry leaders and to achieve new growth through joint business opportunities in Asian and European Markets, SK Telecom and Deutsche Telekom will cooperate in the global sales of innovative solutions and products and work together to lead standardization of innovative technologies, including 5G enabling technologies and SDDC (Software-Defined Data Center).

-           Cloud Streaming Solution, Pico Beamer, International Roaming

As part of the collaboration, SK Telecom and Deutsche Telekom will also make joint efforts to expand markets for their solutions and products/services.

SK Telecom's technological competency with regard to Cloud Streaming* was successfully demonstrated through the solution tests conducted at Deutsche Telekom's T-Labs in December 2015. The two companies will conduct a feasibility test for its potential commercialization in Deutsche Telekom’s footprint by the second quarter of 2016. Going forward, through partnership with Deutsche Telekom, who has 6 million TV subscribers in Europe, SK Telecom expects to secure a bridgehead to enter into the European markets with its Cloud Streaming solution.

*Provided by SK Telecom’s subsidiary ENTRIX, Cloud Streaming is an innovative solution that enables even the legacy/low-end set-top boxes to support the latest user interfaces as it is built on software virtualization technologies. The solution thereby allows companies to significantly reduce costs for set-top box investment and subscriber acquisition. 

Moreover, the two companies have agreed to introduce SK Telecom’s pico beamer to Germany in the second quarter of 2016 and then to other countries in Europe. They also agreed to launch Deutsche Telekom’s in-car Wi-Fi solution in the Korean market.

SK Telecom and Deutsche Telekom will also cooperate in the international roaming service area, including quality improvements, signature of Service Level Agreements and pursuit of LTE based roaming services.

-           Smart City

Another area of collaboration is in the IoT to develop innovative services in an urban setting. They are now ready to combine their efforts to mutually investigate industry leading smart city solutions. This will enable the two to serve the customer needs in the best way to make their cities smarter and to expand the related services into new markets.

-           Technology R&D

Under the partnership agreement, the two companies will pursue joint R&D activities to develop cutting-edge technologies – including 5G enabling technologies – and push for their standardization, while actively taking a part in diverse global projects to drive ICT infrastructure innovations.

In particular, through development of key 5G technologies such as network slicing and mobile edge computing, they plan to drive standardization and implementation of 5G, and identify 5G key applications.

In addition, as members of the Open Compute Project, the Facebook-led open source hardware and data center design initiative, the two companies will play proactive roles to achieve innovations in the network-IT infrastructure.

Furthermore, SK Telecom and Deutsche Telekom have joined the Next Generation Enterprise Network Alliance (ngena) as founding members. ‘ngena’ is an alliance of international telecommunications companies to provide truly international network services for enterprise customers, securely and reliably from a single source. ‘ngena’ is a standalone company with independent management. It comes with a completely new business model and a new technology in a greenfield setting, sharing network assets of trusted service providers.

“The idea is to create an amazing technology partnership with tangible results. The development and exchange of new services will help both companies generate more benefit for our customers,” stated Tim Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom. “But it’s also about learning from each other. We are really impressed with SK Telecom’s agility and creativity, and look forward to exchanging ideas and experiences.”

“SK Telecom is excited to enter into a strategic partnership with Deutsche Telekom, which holds a strong technology and market leadership across the globe," said Jang Dong-hyun, President and CEO of SK Telecom. "By building on each other’s strengths, we will unlock new growth opportunities and pave the way for the future ICT industry.” 

South Korea. SK Telecom contratcs Samsung for nationwide NFV platform

South Korean mobile leader SK Telecom (SKT) has selected Samsung to supply a nationwide network function virtualisation (NFV) platform for its dedicated mobile internet of things (IoT) network.

The operator’s IoT network will be driven by Samsung’s AdaptiV Core and is scheduled to go live in the first half of the year. It said initial applications will target package delivery tracking, CCTV monitoring and citywide sensor monitoring.

Youngky Kim, president and head of networks at Samsung, said NFV is a core technology for next-generation mobile networks and will play a critical role in helping operators deploy, manage and operate networks as well as improve efficiency and scale rapidly.

Samsung completed proof-of-concept trials of virtualised evolved packet core (vEPC ) with SKT in late 2013.

AdaptiV Core has a vEPC that runs on a KVM-based hypervisor on a common server hardware platform and Samsung’s CognitiV cloud manager system. 

The vEPC handles managing traffic to and from IoT-type devices, leveraging its ability to scale network functions to provide a dynamic balance of capacity, performance, power consumption and resource availability.

CognitiV manages this process, keeping track of available resources and network loads, while also providing SKT with an interface for customising the behaviour of each VNF. It also can determine network status and manage hardware resources as needed, Samsung said.

LTE: South Korea: SK Telecom launches world’s first tri-band LTE-A service

SK Telecom said Sunday that it had commercialized a tri-band Long Term Evolution-Advanced service for the first time ever, as part of efforts to develop fifth-generation telecommunications networks.

The tri-band LTE-A service will enable users to download a 1-gigabyte movie in 28 seconds at a speed of 300 megabits per second, which is four times faster than existing fourth-generation LTE, and 21 times faster than the third-generation service, South Korea’s largest mobile carrier noted.

This follows the successful demonstration of the tri-band LTE-A by SK Telecom and its partners Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies last October after developing the technology in January. 

The tri-band LTE-A enables faster data transfer and communication as it aggregates three different frequency bands of 20, 10 and 10 megahertz into one spectrum.

“With the successful commercialization of tri-band LTE-A, SK Telecom not only secures an important edge in LTE-A four-band carrier aggregation, but also moves a step closer to realizing the 5G service,” SK Telecom said in a press statement.

Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics said Sunday that it had launched the Galaxy Note 4 S-LTE running on tri-band LTE-A service.

Subscribers of SK Telecom will be able to enjoy the service for the same price as the existing LTE, the telecom giant said.

“With the launch of the world’s first tri-band LTE-A service, we will not only provide our customers with unprecedented network speeds, but also offer differentiated and diverse mobile value-added services that meet customers’ needs and interests,” said Lee Jong-bong, executive vice president and head of SK Telecom’s network division.

Meanwhile, KT, Korea’s second-largest mobile carrier, said it would launch a trial service of its tri-band LTE-A X4 for consumers to experience a data download speed of 300 Mbps.

LG Uplus, Korea’s smallest carrier, said it would launch its tri-band carrier aggregation service next month with LG Electronics’ new mobile device. 

Ericsson and SK Telecom join forces on 5G research.

Ericsson and SK Telecom signed an MoU to jointly develop technologies that could form 5G standards.

The announcement follows a demo last week in which the Swedish vendor showed off pre-standard 5G to a group of senior executives from SK Telecom and NTT Docomo.

Next generation small cells, ultra wideband, low latency technology, converged FDD/TDD and Gigabyte-level data transmission all feature on the two companies’ wish list for 5G.

However both will continue to work together if additional technologies are found necessary for the next-generation standard, the duo said.

The aim is to stage a 5G demonstration at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics.

Thomas Noren, Ericsson’s vice president and head of product area radio, said South Korea is leading on 4G, in terms of both technology and subscriber numbers. And SK Telecom is the country’s leading 4G operator, he said.

“They are early drivers of technology and we see them as an important partner in defining new opportunities, innovations and requirements for the continued evolution of LTE and towards 5G,” said Noren.

Ericsson is eager to take a leading role in 5G although CTO Ulf Ewaldsson acknowledged last week to Mobile World Live that the industry risks overhyping the technology.

At the wider level, the European Union struck an agreement last month with South Korea’s government , a sign of how Europe wants to tap into the Asian country’s mobile expertise.

The EU and South Korea will work together on defining what 5G actually means, as well as push for harmonised radio spectrum and global 5G standards to ensure interoperability.

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MWC 2014: SK Telecom Wins Two Prestigious Awards.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

SK Telecom  announced that it was awarded "Outstanding LTE Contribution" and "Outstanding Overall Mobile Technology – The CTO's Choice' at the GSMA Global Mobile Awards 2014, the industry's biggest and the most prestigious award.

This year, SK Telecom was recognized for its technology leadership gained through continued developments of advanced network technologies including LTE-Advanced and contribution to set the global standards for LTE and LTE-Advanced services.

'Outstanding LTE Contribution' recognizes the company that developed the most innovative and groundbreaking LTE technologies over the past year. This year's recognition is meaningful in that SK Telecom received this award for two years in a row. The company received 'Outstanding LTE Contribution' for its '4G LTE with PETA Solution' last year.

Moreover, SK Telecom was chosen as the winner of the 'Outstanding Overall Mobile Technology - The CTO's Choice' award. The award, chosen by a distinguished panel of judges consisted of Chief Technology Officers of 16 mobile operators around the globe, is presented to the overall winner from six winners ('Best Mobile Infrastructure', 'Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough', 'Best Cloud Based technology for Mobile', 'Best Mobile Identity, Safeguard & Security Products/Solutions', 'Best Solution for Growing Smaller or Independent Networks', 'Outstanding LTE contribution') under the category of Best Mobile Technology.

Since launching the nation's first LTE in July 2011 and world's first LTE-Advanced in June 2013, SK Telecom has been constantly upgrading the quality of its LTE and LTE-Advanced networks. At present, it offers 150Mbps Wideband LTE using 20MHz bandwidth (1.8GHz band) and 150Mbps LTE-Advanced through "10MHz(800MHz) + 10MHz(1.8GHz)" Carrier Aggregation (CA).

 As of the end of 2013, SK Telecom's LTE and LTE-Advanced subscribers take up over 50 percent of its total mobile subscriber base.

Moreover, it was the world's first to demonstrate 225Mbps LTE-Advanced via "20MHz+10MHz" CA in November 2013 and 300Mbps LTE-Advanced via tri-band ("10MHz+20MHz+ 10MHz") CA in January, 2014. At MWC, it is demonstrating LTE-Advanced tri-band CA ("20MHz+20MHz+20MHz").

"SK Telecom is truly honored to receive two prestigious awards - 'Outstanding LTE Contribution' and 'Outstanding Overall Mobile Technology - The CTO's Choice' – at GSMA Global Mobile Awards 2014 as they recognize our contribution to the global mobile telecommunications industry through leading network technologies. We will continue to make strenuous efforts to develop innovative technologies powerful enough to enhance the quality of people's lives." said Alex Jingsung Choi, Executive Vice President and Head of ICT R&D Division at SK Telecom.

SOURCE SK Telecom.

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LTE: SK Telecom launched HD Voice call service over LTE.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

LTE: SK Telecom launched HD Voice call service over LTE.

South Korean service provider SK Telecom has launched HD voice call service over LTE. According to the company, HD voice call connection time is less than 0.25 to 2.5 seconds, 2 to 20 times shorter than 3G voice calls that require an average of 5 seconds to connect a call.

SK Telecom claims to be first to offer high definition voice call service over LTE that can dramatically push up audio quality. HD Voice uses Adapted Multi-Rate Wide Band (AMR-WB) codec, which offers much upgraded 3G speech coding, and 23.85 Kbps transmission bandwidth, 2.2 times wider than that of 3G voice call, thereby transmitting the previously-inaudible low and high sound waves, and improving voice quality by 40% compared to that of 3G. HD Voice (AMR-WB) provides a much richer, clearer and more natural speech quality due to a wider speech bandwidth of 50–7000 Hz compared to 3G voice call service that is optimized for only 300–2400 Hz voice band.

Operator will offer HD Voice at same rates (KRW 1.8 per second) as that of 3G under pay-per-second billing scheme and allow users to make/receive HD Voice calls without going through a subscription process, thus enabling them to conveniently experience the high-quality, premium service with no additional cost burden.

The company will begin selling Galaxy S3 LTE embedded with HD Voice feature on August 8 and plans to offer firmware upgrades for existing users of Galaxy S3 LTE within this month. In addition SK Telecom plans to embed HD Voice as a basic feature in most of its LTE smartphones to be released in the future.

As an All IP-based premium service that provides high-quality voice, video and data in an integrated manner unlike traditional simple voice calls, HD Voice can be expanded to many new and value-added services. For instance, it offers both voice and video services characterized by seamless in-call voice-to-video call switching and content sharing by linking to RCS services.

SK Telecom completed nationwide LTE rollout (covering 99% of the population) by June 2012 and is providing LTE coverage in underground and in-building areas as well as mountainous region, and coastal/island/marine areas.

LTE: South Korea: SK Telecom hits 4 million suscribers.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

South Korea: SK Telecom hits 4 million suscribers.

South Korean number-one operator SK Telekom revealed it now has more than 4 million subscribers on its LTE network.

The operator added 1 million subscribers in just 44 days (it hit the 3 million mark on June 6), with an average of 41,000 LTE users signing up per day in July, a 71 percent increase from the 24,000 in June.

The company said the subscriber growth “solidifies” its position as the world’s second-largest LTE service provider (behind Verizon Wireless of the US).

With 75 percent of new subscribers choosing its LTE services, SK expects to add 1 million users in July, with the number of subscribers hitting 7 million by the end of the year.

 

According to executive VP and head of SK Telecom’s marketing division, Jang Dong-hyun, the operator completed its LTE deployment, covering 99 percent of the population, by 1 June.

At the beginning of July, SK launched what it claims is the first multi-carrier LTE service. The operator plans to roll out the multi-carrier LTE technology across Seoul and six other metropolitan cities by the end of 2012. More than 300,000 multi-carrier compatible devices have been sold so far, with SK expecting to sell more than 3 million devices by the end of the year.

Around 200,000 LTE-enabled Samsung Galaxy S3 devices were sold in the 10 days following its launch on 9 July.

LTE: SK Telecom in talks with Vodafone for LTE.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

LTE: SK Telecom in talks with Vodafone for LTE.

SK Telecom, the south korea nation’s top mobile carrier, said Tuesday that it is in negotiations with U.K. firm Vodafone to export its in-house advanced telecommunications technology. The firm said the move is part of efforts to strengthen alliances to enable a global presence.

The so-called Smart Push technology is the primary target for the United Kingdom-based telecom group. ``Collaboration with Vodafone will be strengthened as it has keen interest in using the SK technology amid the migration into data-intensive long-term evolution (LTE),’’ said an SK executive, Tuesday.

In February, senior Vodafone executives, who manage the corporate network-related strategies, met with SK Telecom officials in Seoul and tentatively agreed to forge a close tie-up in LTE services.

The Smart Push tech, which is one of SK Telecom’s ``PETA’’-dubbed solutions, enables the smooth usage of social networking services or messengers and also facilitates the large amount of data traffic on Web-connected smartphones and tablets.

Vodafone isn’t the only firm that wants to boost a strategic partnership with the Korean mobile carrier. France’s No. 2 carrier SFR has also approached SK Telecom to check out the development phase of SK’s LTE solutions before entering into a comprehensive partnership, SK said.

SK Telecom is partnering with Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) for the Smart Push technology. Under the pact, the Korean firm is providing the solution, while NSN will be in charge of overseas sales.

``We have signed various non-binding memorandum of understanding with top overseas carriers. One inspiring signal is that they want to learn from our experiences and know-how in managing LTE services,’’ said a company spokesman.

SK Telecom is Korea’s top LTE service provider with the number of its customers exceeding 3.6 million as of last Friday, followed by LG Uplus and KT with 2.9 million and 1.5 million, respectively. 

Currently, the flagship of SK Group is the world’s second-biggest LTE service provider beating Japan’s NTT DOCOMO but behind Verizon Wireless of the United States. 

To offset the stalling local growth, all Korea’s three carriers are heavily investing in LTE networks, though huge costs for promotional campaigns in the nascent but growing market are causing them to suffer from a steep decline in profit.

Although SK Telecom was late in LTE solutions, the carrier has begun stealing share from rivals by offering high-end LTE solutions including Multi-Carrier, Advanced-SCAN and Hybrid Network Integration System as well as PETA.

In a statement, SK said Taiwan Mobile Chief Technology Officer Tom Koh also recently visited the firm’s headquarters to discuss several pending issues with SK management. ``Taiwan Mobile has requested the meeting,’’ he said, adding the partnership has been expanded to education, healthcare and security.

SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus started the sales of the Samsung Galaxy SIII LTE,today.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs. 

SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus started the sales of  the Samsung Galaxy SIII LTE, today.

The three domestic mobile carriers  SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus  started sales of the LTE version, today Monday July 9. 

SK Telecom started sales of the third generation (3G) model last month, but industry officials expect the main sales battle between telecommunications firms to start with the LTE handset as most subscribers are jumping ship to the new network.

The marketing feud between the three and their heavy investment in building nationwide LTE networks have cost billions of won and market analysts speculate that their numbers for the second quarter maybe the worst ever.

Company representatives expect the release of the Galaxy S3 will increase revenue for the second half of the year until other new products from domestic electronics firms Pantech and LG Electronics are released in the fall to further boost earnings.

Samsung have a yet to name a sequel to the Galaxy Note, planned for the fall, and Apple is predicted to release a successor to the iPhone 4 around the same time. 

The S3 is the latest model in the Galaxy series that has made the firm the No. 1 shipper of handsets worldwide. 

Both the 3G and LTE models of the phone run on Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system and have a 1.4 gigahertz quad-core processor and a 4.8 inch super AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) screen.

The LTE model supports digital media broadcasting and boasts a higher memory and connectivity speed.                                

South Korea: SK Telecom Samsung Galaxy SIII with 2GB RAM and quad.core cpu, coming up.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

South Korea: SK Telecom Samsung Galaxy SIII with 2GB RAM and quad-core cpu, coming up.

The international version  of the SGS III with model number GT-I9300 has a quad-core Samsung Exynos chip and 1GB of RAM.

For the USA though, the Galaxy S III strips the Samsung Exynos clothing for a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chip with a dual-core Krait processor with built-in LTE, but doubles the RAM to 2GB.

Now, here’s a combination that brings the best of both worlds - a Samsung Galaxy S III with both a quad-processor and 2GB of RAM. 

 It’s expected to land only on Korea’s SK Telecom in July. 

Technical details:

- quad-core Samsung Exynos 4412 with CPU clocked @ 1.4GHz

- 2GB of RAM

- 4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD screen

- 4.82 ounces (136.5 grams)

- 0.35 inches (9mm)

-2,100mAh battery, like all other versions and comes with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich preloaded.

-32GB

The device is said to be en-route to SK Telecom, and would also support LTE, making it the ultimate Android smartphone.

LTE: SK Telecom showcases LTE and announces rollout plans.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest mobile operator, today demonstrated its LTE services, confirming that the new network will commercially launch in the country’s capital city, Seoul, in July. Initially the operator will offer subscribers data modems, but it expects to have a “rich 4G LTE handset line-up” in place – including smartphones and tablets – within the second half of the year. SKT plans to expand its LTE coverage to 23 cities “as soon as possible” and provide nationwide coverage (82 cities) by 2013.

 By this point, it is scheduled to start upgrading its LTE networks to LTE-Advanced (LTE-A). During its demonstration, SKT said the new network was five to seven times faster than its current 3G infrastructure, enabling an 800MB movie to be downloaded in 1 minute 25 seconds. It added that the technology would support the “great rise in demand for high-definition content and multi-player network games” in South Korea. Once fully commercialised, LTE will be able to handle three times more data traffic on 10MHz of spectrum compared to existing 3G WCDMA networks, the operator said.

On the technical side, SKT said its LTE deployment would utilise a cloud-based network technology called Smart Cloud Access Network (SCAN) which will allow it to flexibly handle mobile data traffic that varies by time and region. The network will also feature Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) technology to prevent “base station interference and abrupt call disconnections,” and will use LTE femtocells to enhance underground and indoor coverage. Because the network will be deployed at 800MHz – the same band as SKT’s earlier 2G CDMA network – it can reuse the operator’s existing 2G repeaters, to boost radio signals to improve quality and coverage.

Qualcomm FlashLinq Peer to Peer Communication trials to start with SK Telecom this month.

WorldWideTech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Qualcomm FlashLinq Peer to Peer Communication trials to start with SK Telecom this month.

Qualcomm demonstrated a FlashLinq prototype at CTIA.

FlashLinq is a new technology that enables devices to discover each other within a 1 kilometer radius, without using cellular networks.

The technology enables device to device communication on licensed bands outside of cellular networks but with links in and out of those networks.

The company sees three key use cases for this technology: 1) social networking: being able to quickly discover friends in your proximity, 2) Proximity advertising, and 3) M2M sensor networks enabling better quality of service, useful in cases like hospital environments.

Technical trials are scheduled to start with SK Telecom in April.

China Mobile and SK Telecom signed a joint R&D deal

WorldWideTech & SCience. Francisco De Jesús.

The top operators from China and South Korea – China Mobile and SK Telecom (SKT) – have forged closer links, with a deal that will see them jointly develop technologies focusing on next-generation networks, device platforms, machine to machine services and the booming apps market.

According to a statement from SKT, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between both parties, signed in March 31^st,  focuses on the promotion of “joint research in the advancement of low cost, high efficiency next generation radio access network architecture, such as SCAN(Smart Cloud Access Network) and the set up of test beds for evaluation”; the upgrade of “device software platform to provide application developers with better development environments;” an effort to “lead global standardisation of new platform business including M2M by building a joint R&D laboratory;” and the combination of “both companies' capabilities in application stores while also cooperating in WAC related areas.”

This is not the first time the two companies have partnered. They have worked closely on the development of LTE technology, particularly TD-LTE. 

In order to seek new growth engines, SKT has been looking for ways to broaden its business portfolio and tap new sources of growth overseas to overcome the limited opportunities in South Korea's saturated mobile market.

 The latest deal with China Mobile underscores SKT's attempt to boost its presence in the world's largest mobile market amid increasing popularity of smartphones and tablet devices. SKT’s statement noted that “with this latest MoU in China, SK Telecom aims to establish itself as a 'Global ICT Leader' in the Chinese market and strengthen its technological leadership in the international market.” SKT previously held a 3.8 percent stake in China Mobile’s rival China Unicom, but sold it in September 2009.