South Korean KT and Ericsson to develope IoT and 5G.

South Korea's telecom provider KT and Ericsson have agreed to strengthen their collaboration in the 5G evolution and to extend this to the Internet of Things (IoT). According to KT, operator is preparing to preview an innovative 5G communications services at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics.

Ericsson and KT have been working closely together to enable the Networked Society. They have successfully verified heterogeneous network carrier aggregation technology, a key element of 5G last year.

More recently, they have successfully demonstrated 5G Multipoint Connectivity with Distributed MIMO with 5G mobile device equipment installed in a moving vehicle. Multipoint Connectivity with Distributed MIMO with 5G enables the connection of a large number of small cells without interruption, and eliminates possible blind spots in coverage areas. This makes it possible to support gigabit-level wireless services like hologram video communication to moving vehicles.

The next generation of mobile networks, 5G is expected to be commercially available from 2020, but Ericsson already has live indoor and outdoor 5G test networks in Sweden and the US. KT will also start a 5G indoor and outdoor test bed at its R&D center this year in collaboration with Ericsson. The two companies will jointly develop and verify 5G mobile broadband access technologies in 5G candidate frequency bands, ultra-dense network operation technologies, and 5G core technologies and systems to provide gigabit-level data speeds and connectivity with ultra-low latency.

As an extension to their memorandum of understanding (MoU) agreed on at Mobile World Congress 2015 for collaboration on the next-generation networks, KT and Ericsson signed another MoU for collaboration in the area of the IoT.  

Korea: SK Telecom debuts worlds first Heterogeneous Network Integration Solution.

WorldWide Tech & Sence. Francisco De Jesús.

South Korean market leader SK Telecom (SKT) trumpeted the “successful development of Heterogeneous Network Integration Solution,” which will enable the simultaneous use of different networks to deliver high-speed data services.

Described as the first of its kind in the world, the technology integrates two networks – for example 3G and Wi-Fi or LTE and Wi-Fi – to provide data rates which are the sum of the two speeds.

The operator is planning to use the technology for simultaneous 3G and Wi-Fi use in the second quarter of 2012 to offer a theoretical maximum speed of 60Mb/s, followed by a LTE and Wi-Fi implementation in 2013 which will power “a 100Mb/s ultra-high speed wireless internet service.”

Supporting this, SKT plans to launch the world’s first smartphone based on this technology during the year, with support added to all handsets launched in 2013, “after conducting an analysis of consumer response and data distribution effect.”

The operator said it will push for the standardisation of Heterogeneous Network Integration Solution through groups including 3GPP and the ITU, and it will also be demonstrated at the GSMA Mobile World Congress next month.

It was noted that the technology will improve the mobile broadband user experience as “it resolves data traffic issues of 3G and LTE networks by increasing the use of Wi-Fi networks.”

LTE: China Mobile and SKT Telecom highlight positive TD-LTE tests

WorldWideTech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.


 China Mobile and SK Telecom announced the results of a series of TD-LTE trials, stating that they demonstrated the performance “meets the industry target, just like its gemel technology, LTE FDD.”


The companies measured benchmarks including average cell throughput, latency, handover, state transition (idle-to-active) and quality of service, with the resulting opinion that “the expected TD-LTE performance is satisfying and the industry requirements can be met.”


While China Mobile and SKT say that they have been “working closely to contribute to technology development toward maturity of LTE and speed-up commercialisation of LTE networks since 2008,” they have not stated their timescales for the launch of services. The partners did not state which infrastructure vendors they have worked with.


The comments from China Mobile and SKT come at a time that TD-LTE appears to be gaining somemomentum in the industry, especially within the APAC region.


In addition to support from China and South Korea, the technology is also likely to be used to power wireless broadband services in India, as an alternative to WiMAX, and Japan.


Outside of Asia, operators in various markets are also exploring the technology, with Poland’s Aero2 widely reported to be planning a commercial launch later this year – potentially making it the first operator to have a live commercial network.